Suspect Threatening Mass Shooting of Worshippers Sought, and Scammers Caught

Community Alert
Los Angeles Police Department Harbor detectives seek the community’s help in locating a suspect. The individual is suspected of making phone calls to churches and threatening to kill worshipers by unknown means.

The suspects is Richard Alfred Aguilar. He is a male Hispanic with black hair, brown eyes,  5’10” height, 160 lbs. He is 36 years old. The suspect is known to frequent the San Pedro Beacon St. transient area.

Anyone with information about this suspect is encouraged to contact Harbor Detective J. Zavala at 310-726-7860 or email at, harbordetectives@lapdonline.

Do not attempt to apprehend the suspect. If he is located, call 911 immediately and contact the police.

SoCal Scammer Arrests
By Raphael Richardson

SANTA ANA, Calif. – Four men were arrested, with one still wanted, after being caught scamming elderly victims out of $5 million by pressuring them to buy fraudulent services. 

The indictment by federal prosecutors, assisted by the U.S. Secret Service and Huntington Beach Police Department, alleges that five men ran a scam operation from 2015 to May of 2019, in which telemarketing companies run by the scheme’s ringleader called timeshare owners and offered to end their contracts with timeshare companies for a “one-time fee.” If the victim was interested, their call was transferred to another telemarketer, who would convince the victim to sign a contract with the telemarketing company and pay a fee. Victims would then be contacted again a few weeks later, in order to be forced to pay more money.

The scam also utilized several Southern California-based companies, all founded by the ringleader, to perpetuate the timeshare-relief scam, the indictment charged. Once one company became inundated with consumer complaints, another company was founded to keep the scam in operation.

Prosecutors identified five of the men involved in the scam, four of which have already been arrested. 41-year-old Michael McDonagh of Long Beach was named by authorities to be the ringleader of the operation. Additionally, 42-year-old Antonio Duarte of Corona, 32-year-old Christopher James Vannoy of Norwalk, and 40-year-old Ruben Ortiz of Long Beach were also arrested. Authorities are still searching for a fifth suspect, 43-year-old Frank Anthony Molina, of San Pedro.

McDonagh, Duarte, Vannoy and Molina have been charged with one count of conspiracy and 28 counts of wire fraud and telemarketing fraud against the elderly, while Ortiz, who joined the scam group three years after it started, faces one charge of conspiracy and 12 counts of wire fraud and telemarketing fraud against the elderly.

The group scammed more than $5 million out of the dozens of victims, many of which were over 55 years old, authorities said. If convicted, each suspect would face a statutory 20 years in federal prison for conspiracy, and a statutory maximum of 30 years in federal prison for each fraud count.

Members of the public who have been a victim of these scams have been urged by authorities to contact the Secret Service’s Santa Ana Resident Office at 714-246-8257.