FBI brokers performed search warrants early Thursday on the dwelling of Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao and the house of an worker of a metropolis waste contractor.
The FBI confirmed the 2 search warrants however declined to say who the targets of the search warrants have been and whether or not they have been linked.
Thao and her workplace didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.
The primary search was performed on the mayor’s dwelling on Maiden Lane within the Lincoln Highlands neighborhood, and it additionally included officers from the Inner Income Service in addition to the U.S. Postal Service. Neither company could possibly be instantly reached for remark.
Video from native information companies confirmed brokers carrying containers and luggage out of the home.
Thao’s tan, two-story home sits on a picturesque road close to the Oakland Hills. Outdoors the mayor’s home, an indication studying “pleasure” sat propped in opposition to the hedges, and the household’s rubbish cans nonetheless stood on the fringe of the curb.
Greg Linden, one in every of Thao’s neighbors who lives just some homes up the road, stated information of the raid has unfold shortly by way of the neighborhood.
Linden didn’t see this morning’s raid himself, however as an alternative discovered of the information when a neighbor referred to as him.
“It’s much more buzz than we’d usually have” within the neighborhood, he stated. “It’s a reasonably quiet road.”
“There’s clearly one thing massive happening,” he stated.
The second search warrant was performed three miles away from the mayor’s dwelling. The FBI stated brokers searched a home on View Crest Court docket within the Oakland Hills.
Property information present that the latter house is linked to Andy Duong, one of many Duong relations who personal and handle Cal Waste Options, which has been investigated over marketing campaign contributions to Thao and different elected metropolis officers, the Oaklandside reported in 2020.
FBI brokers have been nonetheless wandering out and in of the home as of Thursday afternoon, at one level looking out the trunk and inside of a white Mercedes sedan that sat parked within the driveway of the blue two-story home.
Duong couldn’t be reached for remark.
The searches come as Thao and Alameda County Dist. Atty. Pamela Worth face recall elections this November amid growing voter frustration over crime and budgetary points which have challenged metropolis leaders.
Thao grew to become the primary Hmong particular person to be elected to workplace in a significant U.S. metropolis within the fall of 2018 when she gained a seat on the Metropolis Council, representing residents of the 4th District, which incorporates neighborhoods equivalent to Montclair, Laurel and Melrose.
4 years later she was elected mayor, inheriting a troubled metropolis nonetheless recovering from a pandemic and experiencing a major rise in virtually each crime class together with armed assaults in addition to property and retail thefts.
The violence has prompted a number of high-profile companies in latest months to shut areas in Oakland, together with In-N-Out Burger and Denny’s, citing security dangers to workers and clients.
The group Oakland United to Recall Sheng Thao, led by a former Alameda County Superior Court docket decide whom Thao faraway from town’s Police Fee in June, has faulted the mayor for the rising crime. They’ve criticized her for failing to declare a state of emergency on crime and for taking a 12 months to exchange a police chief she had fired. Thao additionally drew intense scrutiny for lacking the applying deadline final 12 months when Gov. Gavin Newsom’s workplace supplied greater than $267 million to cities and counties to battle retail thefts.
In February, Newsom despatched 120 CHP officers to Oakland as a part of a brand new state regulation enforcement marketing campaign to handle violent crime, an operation that has helped get better greater than 880 stolen autos and 47 “crime-linked” firearms, and led to greater than 400 arrests.
“As crime charges throughout California lower — together with proper throughout the Bay in San Francisco — Oakland is seeing the alternative pattern,” Newsom stated when he introduced the operation. “What’s occurring on this stunning metropolis and surrounding space is alarming and unacceptable.”
Efforts to crack down on crime appear to be working. Latest experiences from the Oakland Police Division present a 33% discount in crime in 2024, in contrast with the identical time final 12 months.
Occasions employees author Karen Garcia contributed to this story.