News

SAN DIEGO – Ping “Jenny” Gao of Point Loma was sentenced in federal court today to 63 months’ custody after admitting that she embezzled and laundered more than $8.5 million from her employer’s bank accounts. U.S. District Judge James E. Simmons, Jr. also ordered Gao to pay $3,295,000 in restitution to victims of the offense – Nautical Hero Group, LLC and Vitality International Management, LLC.

SAN DIEGO – Alejandro Salinas of Tijuana, Mexico, was sentenced in federal court today to 240 months in prison for leading an organization that trafficked large amounts of fentanyl and methamphetamine into the United States from Mexico. Salinas previously pleaded guilty to participating in an international conspiracy to distribute fentanyl and methamphetamine.

SAN DIEGO – Federal prosecutors in the Southern District of California filed 114 border-related cases this week, including charges of bringing in aliens for financial gain, reentering the U.S. after deportation, and importation of controlled substances.

SAN DIEGO – A federal grand jury has indicted alleged Sinaloa Cartel associates Poly Antunez, Antonio Quinones and Jovanny Enriquez for directing a plot to execute a cartel target in Chula Vista in March 2024 using two teen gang members as hitmen because the 15-year-olds were thought to be too young for serious legal consequences.

SAN DIEGO – A federal jury today convicted Ricardo Orizaba-Zendejas, a Mexican national in the country illegally, of drug and firearms crimes. Orizaba was working for the drug trafficking organization implicated in the fatal shootings of a husband and his pregnant wife, who were also members of the same drug trafficking organization but wanted out and had spoken to federal agents.

SAN DIEGO –David Gilbert Gomez, a documented San Diego gang member also known as “Choker,” was sentenced in federal court today to 87 months in prison for being a felon in possession of a firearm on March 12, 2024. Gomez previously pleaded guilty in federal court to that charge. According to court records, officers with the City of Imperial Police Department were conducting a routine traffic stop when they observed two men standing near an unoccupied vehicle. Upon seeing police presence, both men ran into a nearby residence. Inside the unoccupied vehicle, police observed a semiautomatic

SAN DIEGO – Federal prosecutors in the Southern District of California filed 111 border-related cases this week, including charges of bringing in aliens for financial gain, reentering the U.S. after deportation, and importation of controlled substances. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California is the fourth-busiest federal district, largely due to a high volume of border-related crimes. This district, encompassing San Diego and Imperial counties, shares a 140-mile border with Mexico. It includes the San Ysidro Port of Entry, the world’s busiest land border crossing

SAN DIEGO – Cameron William Fulston of Carlsbad was sentenced in federal court today to 144 months in prison for coordinating the sale of the fentanyl that resulted in the fatal overdose of 25-year-old Carlsbad resident Danielle Good in 2023.

SAN DIEGO – Federal prosecutors in the Southern District of California filed 86 border-related cases this week, including charges of bringing in aliens for financial gain, reentering the U.S. after deportation, and importation of controlled substances.

SAN DIEGO –Douglas Wiederhold, a male performer in the massive GirlsDoPorn sex-trafficking conspiracy led by Michael Pratt, was sentenced in federal court today to four years in prison. Wiederhold was paid to perform in 71 adult sex videos that exploited victims. Wiederhold is the last of seven charged defendants to be sentenced for their roles in the multimillion-dollar criminal empire that lured young women into making sex videos through lies, coercion, and manipulation, and then broadcasting their abuse to millions online.

SAN DIEGO – Jing Guo, a Chinese national residing in California, pleaded guilty in federal court today, admitting she participated in an international fraud and money laundering scheme that tricked more than 40 elderly victims out of more than $1.2 million. According to court documents and statements made in court, this case arises from an investigation into a call center scam that targeted elderly individuals in California and elsewhere in the United States in May 2025.