Santa Barbara narcotics detectives on 9/8 arrested two men on suspicion of possessing and selling illegal weapons, including brass knuckles, switchblades, nunchucks, and pen knives. The operation-which allegedly sold weapons to gang members-was exposed through an undercover sting, though investigators first became aware of it through the October 2008 citywide gang sweep, Operation Gator Roll. The weapons were allegedly being sold at Pacific Paper Products on Garden Street. Owner Alejandro Francisco Domeno, 44, and employee Efrain Castellanos Moreno, 48, were both arrested.
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The Los Angeles Police Department has arrested 23-year-old Nicole De La Fuente on charges of being the accomplice in a April 2009 attempted murder that occurred near the Santa Ines Mission. According to a Sheriff’s report, De La Fuente is the sought-after woman who allegedly lured a man to the parking lot of the mission, whereupon 38-year-old Eddie Rojo attempted to rob the man. The robbery went awry, however, and Rojo allegedly shot the victim twice. De La Fuente remained at large until this week. She was booked into Santa Barbara County Jail on attempted murder charges at $500,000 bail.
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Six people have been treated for exposure to an industrial solvent delivered to UCSB’s Biological Sciences 2 building on 9/4. The paint thinner-like smell rising from the package of toluene-which can damage the nervous system-was initially mistaken for a gas leak. County fire crews and UCSB Police Department officials determined that one of four toluene tubes had broken and evacuated the building until later that afternoon.
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Two men working for a contracted prisoner transportation company who forced a female inmate to perform sexual acts on them while en route to Santa Barbara County pleaded no contest to charges Friday. Roland Ygelsias was sentenced to 270 days in Santa Barbara County Jail for one count of oral copulation in a detention facility and one count of sexual activity in a detention facility, and Miguel Jacobo was sentenced to 75 days in jail for sexual activity in a detention facility. Additionally, Ygelsias must register as a sex offender.
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Massey Haraguchi, who earlier in the year pled no contest to assault with the intent to rape an intoxicated person and false imprisonment by violence, was sentenced on 9/4 by Judge Frank Ochoa to 365 days in county jail. Haraguchi, whose case reached the California Supreme Court because of a thematically similar book written by then-prosecutor Joyce Dudley, will next be on probation and must register as a sex offender. Haraguchi, according to prosecutors, admitted to sexual contact with an overly intoxicated woman.
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Santa Barbara police report that officers arrested 13 people for drunk driving over the Labor Day weekend-among them, a 27-year-old man whose impairment allegedly caused an injury accident at the intersection of Pedregosa and De la Vina streets and also a 37-year-old man who had four prior DUI convictions and was therefore charged with a felony count of intoxicated driving.
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Tracy McKee, 40, was arrested for allegedly burglarizing the Metro 4 Theatre on 9/5 at 1:30 a.m. Officers said they entered Metro 4 after noticing its doors ajar, saw McKee fleeing up a stairway and ultimately caught her with a cup of nacho cheese. Investigators claim that McKee discovered the theater unlocked, entered, and began consuming and collecting snacks. She was charged with burglary and resisting arrest.
Two people stuck midway while trying to scale the 200-foot cliffs at More Mesa Beach were rescued by a fire crew on 9/7 around 10:20 a.m. The 37-year-old man and 28-year-old woman apparently ignored the stairs and attempted to climb down the cliff face near the end of Mockingbird Lane. The couple was retrieved after the crew spent several hours maneuvering ropes. Neither was injured.