California police started an investigation against various policemen accused of participating in a plan which consisted in towing and then selling the cars of poor Latinos which had been confiscated, local media reported on Tuesday.
Dean Flippo, Monterey County prosecutor, said that four policemen, among them the recently retired chief of police and the interim chief of King City, along with two others, were arrested for various charges related to the robbery of over 200 vehicles from poor Latinos, according to the Associated Press, quoted by the ABC in its website.
In total, six people were arrested on the morning of Tuesday, Feb. 25 during a raid carried out by personnel from the Monterey County Sheriff's Office along with FBI agents, the Salinas Police Department and the bureau of investigations of the attorney's office, after an investigation that lasted many months.
The arrest of the six people involved happened after Latino residents of King City, many of whom are poor and don't speak English, presented complaints to Flippo over the abuses from police officers against them.
According to Los Angeles Times in its coverage, the investigations carried out revealed that over 200 vehicles were confiscated that 87 percent of them were towed by a single tow truck company which was involved in the scam, whose owners were also arrested.
With a police department comprised of 17 police officers in King City, the arrest of 4 of its agents has caught the attention of the small rural town located 150 miles southeast of San Francisco.
The same source detailed that the cars which got towered ended up being sold or gifted to officials when their original owners were not able to pay to recover them.
The four officers detained on Tuesday were identified as Sergeant Bobby Javier Carrillo, interim chief Bruce Edward Miller, former chief Dominic David Baldiviez and Mario Alonso Mottu. Each of the officers is charged with bribery and fraud.
Brian Albert Miller, the owner of the tow truck service and brother of the interim chief, was also arrested during Tuesday's operation.