SAN PEDRO — Cargo volumes at the Port of Los Angeles increased almost16 percent in October compared to the same period the past year, marking the busiest month ever at a Western Hemisphere container port, according to data collected by the American Association of Port Authorities.
Total volumes registered at 814,574 twenty-foot equivalents, TEUs, eclipsing the previous record of 800,063 TEUs at the POLA in October 2006.
October imports increased 16.4 percent to 417,311 TEUs. Exports jumped 23.3 percent to 166,406 TEUs. Along with an 18.3 percent surge in empty containers, overall October container volumes were 814,574 TEUs.
With total cargo volumes through the first 10 months of 2016 at 7,182,682 TEUs, it represents an increase of 5.25 percent compared to the same period in 2015. Current and past data container counts for POLA may be found at: http://www.portoflosangeles.org/maritime/stats.asp
October container volumes were down 6.2 percent at the Port of Long Beach compared to the same month the prior year, as the fallout from the Hanjin bankruptcy continues to settle.
A total of 581,808 twenty-foot equivalent units, TEUs moved through docks last month. Export TEUs were 1.2 percent down, relatively flat compared to the prior October, to 126,770 TEUs. Total imports were 296,711 TEUs, 3.7 percent off. Empty containers experienced the largest drop of 13.8 percent to 158,327 boxes.
Port officials noted the harbor’s past October was the best in the previous eight years, and came during a string of six consecutive months of cargo growth to end 2015.
A major factor affecting the port’s volume is the Hanjin bankruptcy. In 2015, Hanjin Shipping containers accounted for about12.3 percent of the port’s total containerized volume. Port leaders recently acted to clear a backlog of empty containers related to the Hanjin bankruptcy, freeing a significant number of chassis to speed the efficient flow of cargo through the Southern California supply chain.
For the calendar year through October, Port TEUs trail the 2015 total by 4.8 percent.
More detailed cargo numbers are at www.polb.com/stats.
LONG BEACH – Four defendants were sentenced Nov.14 in connection with a fraudulent Orange County, debt relief firm.
The defendants all worked at Nelson Gamble and Associates and Jackson Hunter Morris and Knight, companies that offered to settle credit card debts but instead took victims’ payments as undisclosed up-front fees.
The four defendants all previously pleaded guilty for their roles in the scheme.
Christopher Harati, 33, of Long Beach, was sentenced to serve 27 months in prison and ordered to pay $408,403 in restitution. Harati worked with Elias Ponce, 30, in customer service at the companies.
Ponce, of Santa Ana, was sentenced to serve 42 months in prison and ordered to pay $2,340,373 in restitution. Ponce worked in the “customer service” department and handled complaints
Jeremy Nelson, 31, of Dana Point, was sentenced to serve 87 months in prison and ordered to pay $4,225,924 in restitution. Nelson admitted to being the owner and CEO of the companies and overseeing the scheme.
Athena Maldonado, 32, of Lake Forest, was sentenced to serve one month in prison and six months home confinement and ordered to pay $130,224 in restitution. Maldonado handled complaints and held herself out as the vice president of the company’s “legal department.”
Nelson and Ponce both pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud. Harati and Maldonado pleaded guilty to a separate Information charging one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. A fifth defendant, John Vartanian, 57, of Newport Beach, pleaded guilty to conspiracy in July in connection to his role as a salesman at the companies. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 21.
Members of the conspiracy at times portrayed Nelson Gamble and Jackson Hunter as law firms or attorney-based companies. Clients were told the companies would negotiate favorable settlements with creditors. Clients made monthly payments expecting the money to go toward settlements. The conspirators instead took at least 15 percent of the total debt as company fees, with the first six months of payments going almost entirely toward undisclosed up-front fees.
The scheme ran from February 2010 to September 2012. Nelson changed the name of the company from Nelson Gamble to Jackson Hunter in 2011. Nelson and his co-conspirators told victims that Nelson Gamble had gone bankrupt and that Jackson Hunter was an unrelated company that had taken over some of the accounts. Nelson and his co-conspirators blamed past problems on Nelson Gamble and denied requests for refunds of money paid to Nelson Gamble. Some victims who previously demanded refunds accepted the explanation that Nelson Gamble was bankrupt and did not pursue complaints against Jackson Hunter.
In September 2012, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) brought a civil case against Nelson and the companies, alleging that the defendants misrepresented debt relief services offered to consumers. (See https://www.ftc.gov/enforcement/cases-proceedings/122-3030-x120048/nelson-gamble-associates-llc-et-al). The case was settled by entry of a consent decree in August 2013.
For more information about the Consumer Protection Branch, visit its website at http://www.justice.gov/civil/consumer-protection-branch.
For the month of October, JetBlue conducted four operations after 11:00 pm that resulted in consent decree violations or fines. Each consent decree violation resulted in a fine of $3,000. The next two Consent Decree violations in the 4th quarter would result in $3,000 fines, and the fines would increase to $6,000 for each subsequent Consent Decree violation in the quarter. JetBlue conducted a total of 19 operations in between 10:00 pm and 11:00 pm. 18 of these operations qualified as unanticipated delays and the delays were primarily due to mechanical problems with aircraft and poor weather conditions. One operation that was conducted in between 10:00 pm and 11:00 pm that resulted in a $300 violation. JetBlue was fined a total of $12,300 for the month of October. The attached chart shows the totals for each month of 2016.
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WILMINGTON – Authorities arrested 17 members and associates of the Wilmas street gang who are named in a federal racketeering indictment that alleges acts of murder, attempted murder, narcotics trafficking, robbery and witness intimidation – as well as a series of armed attacks on law enforcement officers dating back to 2008.
The 17 people arrested this morning and late Nov. 8, are among 29 defendants named in a 111-page indictment that alleges violations of the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. The arrests were made by officers with the Los Angeles Police Department, special agents with the Drug Enforcement Administration and other law enforcement authorities, including the United States Marshals Service and the FBI.
In addition to those arrested during the Operation “Tidal Wave,” 10 defendants were already in custody on unrelated charges. Authorities are continuing to search for two defendants.
During the course of the investigation, law enforcement seized nearly eight pounds of methamphetamine and 10 firearms, including one linked to a shooting.
Operation Tidal Wave targeted the Wilmas gang, which has operated in the Wilmington District of Los Angeles since the 1950s and is affiliated with the Mexican Mafia. As a “surenos” gang, the Wilmas gang “is loyal to, supports and contributes to the Mexican Mafia,” according to the indictment, which outlines how leaders of the prison gang issues orders to kill rival gang members and members of law enforcement.
The federal indictment unsealed this morning outlines a criminal enterprise that controls the drug trade in Wilmington, collects “taxes” from drug dealers for the benefit of Mexican Mafia members, maintains a supply of often-illegal firearms, and takes retribution against people who may be cooperating with law enforcement. Wilmas gang members murdered two 16-year-old victims on February 26, 2012, according to the indictment.
Operation Tidal Wave was conducted under the auspices of the Los Angeles High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Task Force, which is coordinated by the Drug Enforcement Administration.
The 31-count indictment alleges a conspiracy to violate Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act; numerous criminal offenses that violated the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act statute, including murder, distribution of methamphetamine, extortion, and witness tampering; violent crimes in aid of racketeering, conspiracy to trafficking narcotics, possession with the intent to distribute methamphetamine and one defendant is accused of being a felon in possession of a shotgun.
An indictment contains allegations that a defendant has committed a crime. Every defendant is presumed to be innocent until and unless proven guilty in court.
Most of the 29 defendants named in the indictment face potential life sentences if they are convicted, and most potentially face mandatory minimum sentences of 10 years in federal prison.
COMPTON — Darrius Marques Sutton, also known as “Biz,” of Compton, admitted to sex trafficking a 15-year-old girl, subjecting her to a month of sexual abuse, and advertising the victim as a prostitute. He was sentenced Nov. 14 to 160 months in federal prison.
Sutton, 26, said had been sentenced previously to more than four years in state prison on related pimping charges. In the federal case, Sutton pleaded guilty in June to one count of sex trafficking of a child.
Over the course of month-long spree in 2011, Sutton “repeatedly engaged in violent sexual assaults on young women, and [he] appears to have taken delight in
subjecting his victims to inhumane and humiliating treatment while breaking them into his stable of prostitutes,” prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memorandum filed with the court.
At today’s sentencing hearing, prosecutors said that, over a five-month period, Sutton had posted at least 60 advertisements for prostitution on Backpage.com, some of which offered minor victims.
“It is difficult to imagine sexual assaults more egregious than defendant’s. As defendant admits, he repeatedly raped…a 15-year-old girl, and recorded himself and others doing so – at times while she was unconscious, including on at least one occasion with a vodka bottle,” prosecutors wrote in court papers, which noted a video recorded by Sutton in which he violently punches a young woman in the face, apparently breaking her nose.
Sutton is one of four men who were indicted by a federal grand jury in August 2015. The federal case followed a state court prosecution of the men in which Sutton was convicted of conspiracy to pimp a minor. In the state case, Sutton was sentenced to 52 months in prison.
The three other men named in the indictment are:
ARIZONA — On Nov. 8, Sheriff Joe Arpio lost his bid for a seventh term in office.
Arpio known for repeatedly targeting Latinos throughout Maricopa County, Arizona, had been charged with criminal contempt of court two weeks prior to his loss.
The 84-year-old sheriff has served in office for 24 years.
After the Department of Justice launched an investigation into allegations of discrimination and unconstitutional searches and seizures in June 2008, Sheriff Arpaio refused to cooperate with investigators. On September 2, 2010, the DOJ filed suit against Arpaio to compel his cooperation. Less than a year later, Arpaio conceded defeat and allowed federal investigators access to his staff and files. On March 24, 2013, U.S. District Judge G. Murray Snow issued a decision in Melendres v. Arpaio that found Arpaio and his office in violation of the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Former Phoenix Police Sgt. Paul Penzone defeated Arpaio in a rematch of their 2012 run. This time Penzone received 54.9 percent of the votes, while Arpaio only ended up with 45.1 percent.
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