FBI - San Francisco

Case Update: James Michael Garrison was sentenced yesterday to 7 years in federal prison for a series of bank robberies and a carjacking that occurred in late 2024 and early 2025 in the Northern District of California. Garrison pleaded guilty on February 12, 2026, to three counts of bank robbery and one count of carjacking. According to the plea agreement and other documents filed in the case, beginning in December 2024, Garrison embarked on a spree of bank robberies in Rohnert Park and San Francisco. Garrison robbed banks in Rohnert Park on December 5, 2024, and January 2, 2025. During those robberies, he demanded cash and threatened to shoot the tellers. Garrison robbed another bank in San Francisco on December 27, 2024, during which he held a knife in his hand and threatened to shoot “everybody.” In total, he stole approximately $20,000 from the three banks.
Following Garrison’s third bank robbery, he was spotted by San Francisco Police Officers, fled from officers, and carjacked a rideshare driver in an attempt to escape. While in the car’s backseat, Garrison pulled out a black knife shaped like a handgun and held the weapon to the driver’s head and threatened to shoot him. Garrison initially refused to leave the car and resisted arrest. Garrison has been in custody since his arrest in 2025. He will begin serving his prison term immediately. In addition to the prison term, Judge Lin also ordered Garrison to serve 3 years of supervised release that will begin after his term of imprisonment.

SF Case Update: Seven Chinese executives and four of the world’s largest shipping container manufacturing companies were indicted for conspiring to restrict the output of — and fix the prices of — nearly all of the world’s standard unrefrigerated shipping containers for over four years, spanning as early as November 2019 to at least January 2024, in violation of Section 1 of the Sherman Antitrust Act. The multi-year conspiracy roughly doubled the prices of standard shipping containers between 2019 and 2021, increasing the container manufacturers’ profits approximately one hundredfold during the COVID-19 pandemic and global supply chain crisis. One executive, Vick Nam Hing Ma, was arrested and his extradition to the United States is pending. Six executive co-defendants remain at large. Read more:
https://ow.ly/9XGo50Z2sLv

🚨May 15 is National Senior Fraud Awareness Day 🚨

The reminds families, caregivers, and communities that awareness and conversation are key to prevention. Older Americans lost more than $7.7 billion to fraud in 2025, according to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) Learn more about elder fraud prevention: fbi.gov/elderfraud

Case Update: Former California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation employee, Keith Reindeer Randle, pleaded guilty in federal court today to possession with intent to distribute over 300 grams of methamphetamine to inmates at San Quentin Rehabilitation Center, formerly known as San Quentin State Prison. In pleading guilty, Randle admitted to soliciting and accepting bribery payments in exchange for smuggling and distributing prison contraband, including methamphetamine, ma*****na, and to***co, to inmates at San Quentin. The scheme went on for years, dating back to at least January 2019 and continuing through August 15, 2024. Randle charged inmates and their associates approximately $1,000 per item he smuggled into the prison and initially received payments directly from inmates. However, fearing law enforcement might uncover his contraband and drug distribution scheme, Randle began to solicit and accept bribery payments from the associates of inmates rather than inmates themselves. On August 15, 2024, Randle was caught inside San Quentin with a hollowed out peanut butter jar containing 301 grams of methamphetamine, as well as ma*****na. The peanut butter jar was painted brown and glued shut to appear full and unopened.

Randle profited significantly from his years-long bribery and drug distribution scheme. In total, Randle admitted to soliciting and accepting over $100,000 in bribery payments from inmates and their associates. With the illicit proceeds, Randle admitted to making numerous purchases, such as buying cars, motorcycles, and other assets.

Randle’s sentencing hearing is scheduled for August 21, 2026.

Thank you to everyone who joined us at last month's San Francisco career expo. We enjoyed connecting with so many talented individuals interested in serving their communities and exploring careers with the FBI. Missed the last event or ready to learn more? Join us this Saturday, May 16, at Tanforan Mall in San Bruno for Police Day with San Bruno PD. We hope to see you there!

Today, San Francisco attended the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office annual Peace Officers' Memorial. Law enforcement agencies from across the region, alongside the families of the fallen, came together to honor the courage, service, and sacrifice of those who gave their lives while protecting their communities. We are grateful to our partners for including us in this tribute and helping ensure their legacy is never forgotten.

CASE UPDATE: Three men have been indicted on robbery, kidnapping, and conspiracy charges related to a $6 million cryptocurrency robbery spree throughout the Bay Area and LA. Elijah Armstrong, Nino Chindavanh, and Jayden Rucker - all from Tennessee- were charged on Conspiracy to Commit Hobbs Act Robbery, Conspiracy to Commit Kidnapping, Attempted Hobbs Act Robbery, and Attempted Kidnapping relating to a violent robbery spree targeting cryptocurrency owners. Armstrong and Rucker were arrested in Los Angeles on December 31, 2025, and Chindavanh was arrested on December 22, 2025, in Sunnyvale. Chindavanh made his initial appearance in federal court in San Francisco on April 14, 2026, and Armstrong and Rucker made their initial appearances in federal court in San Francisco earlier today. According to the indictment filed March 31, 2025, Armstrong, Chindavanh, and Rucker are alleged to have conspired to kidnap and rob individuals in San Francisco, San Jose, Sunnyvale, and Los Angeles in efforts to steal cryptocurrency from the victims. The defendants traveled from Tennessee to commit the alleged crimes and posed as delivery persons to gain access or attempt to gain access to the victims’ residences. They then used fi****ms, duct tape, and zip ties to assault their victims, including by binding and restraining a victim in order to force him to divulge his account information. In one of the incidents perpetrated by the conspiracy, the victim was forced at gunpoint to sign into his cryptocurrency accounts so that a co-conspirator could transfer approximately $6.5 million from his cryptocurrency accounts to a wallet controlled by the co-conspirators. Armstrong, Chindavanh, and Rucker are currently in federal custody. Armstrong and Rucker are next scheduled to appear on May 12, 2026, for appointment of counsel before U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas S. Hixson. Chindavanh is next scheduled to appear on June 26, 2026, for a status hearing before U.S. District Judge Trina L. Thompson.

Justice Department Announces Results of Operation Iron Pursuit: In April, the and our partners arrested more than 350 child predators and recovered more than 200 child victims. SF’s Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force contributed to seven arrests.

Case Update: Yesterday, Colin Jackson was convicted of participating in a scheme
to defraud an automobile insurance company. Jackson is one of more than a dozen defendants who have been convicted as part of Operation Hammer Down. The jury found that Jackson conspired with others, including a previously convicted defendant, Kirill Afanasyev, to defraud an automobile insurance company concerning the submission of a fraudulent insurance claim on an already-wrecked car in 2018. According to court documents, Jackson, 39, of San Francisco, obtained an insurance policy on an undrivable car in June 2018. He made a number of misstatements in his application for that policy, including regarding his estimated annual mileage on the car. Five months later, in November 2018, Jackson and Afanasyev worked together to submit a fraudulent claim concerning a fake accident to the insurer. Unaware it had insured a wrecked car, the defrauded automobile-insurance company approved the claim and paid Jackson about $27,000—the insurer’s estimate of the replacement value of the car, which had been titled in Jackson’s name. The 2018 fraud followed a similar scheme in 2017, when Jackson and Afanasyev obtained a payout from the insurer of approximately $30,000 on another already-wrecked car titled in Jackson’s name. With the jury’s verdict against Jackson, more than a dozen defendants have either pleaded guilty or been convicted at trial as part of an ongoing federal investigation into automobile insurance frauds and an unrelated arson conspiracy involving an overlapping defendant, Jose Badillo, who previously pleaded guilty to participating in both parts of the scheme.
Operation Hammerdown was a federal investigation into automobile-insurance frauds orchestrated by Afanasyev and Badillo, the former owner of Jose’s Towing, Auto Towing, and Specialty Towing. In total, Afanasyev, Badillo, and others submitted and conspired to submit more than 50 fraudulent insurance claims that caused in excess of $1.5 million dollars in losses to automobile insurance companies. Operation Hammerdown also concerned arsons orchestrated by Badillo, who sought to impede his competitors’ business prospects to exact revenge against them for perceived wrongs. For his role in the arson campaign, Badillo was sentenced in February 2026 to 60 months in custody. Press Release: https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/pr/colin-jackson-convicted-participating-scheme-defraud-automobile-insurance-company

CASE UPDATE: Today, former Rohnert Park Police officers were sentenced to federal prison for conspiracy to commit extortion, impersonating federal officers, obstruction of justice, and other charges related to a ma*****na seizure scheme. Joseph Huffaker, 41, of Rohnert Park, CA was sentenced to 20 months in prison, and Brendon Jacy Tatum, 43, of Santa Rosa, CA, was sentenced to 30 months in prison. At the conclusion of a week-long trial in 2025, a federal jury convicted Huffaker on six counts of extortion under color of official right, falsifying records in a federal investigation, impersonating a federal officer, and conspiracy to commit those offenses. Tatum pled guilty in 2021 to conspiracy to commit extortion under color of official right, falsifying records in a federal investigation, and tax evasion, and testified as a witness at Huffaker’s trial. According to court documents and the evidence presented at trial, Huffaker and Tatum were both employed between 2012 and 2019 with the City of Rohnert Park Department of Public Safety (RPDPS) as police officers. The jury found that Huffaker and Tatum conspired to pull over drivers they suspected of possessing significant amounts of ma*****na and extorted their ma*****na by falsely claiming to be ATF agents and threatening to arrest drivers if they contested seizures of their property. The jury also found that Huffaker and Tatum conspired to obstruct justice by creating a false police report two months after their extortions and sending that report to the FBI. According to court documents and the evidence presented at trial, RPDPS previously operated an interdiction team between 2014 and early 2017 that conducted traffic stops on vehicles along Highway 101 between Cloverdale and Rohnert Park in an effort to seize illegal drugs. In December of 2017, 11 months after the interdiction team had been disbanded, Huffaker and Tatum extorted significant quantities of ma*****na from individuals, declaring to the individuals that they were ATF agents, that their property would be seized, and at times threatening to arrest and charge them. After extorting the ma*****na, Huffaker and Tatum sold it for personal profit. These seizures occurred while the officers were not on duty and not wearing their uniforms or body-worn cameras. In February 2018, the FBI received a complaint from a citizen who claimed to have been shaken down by police officers on the highway and an FBI agent asked Tatum for the police report related to the incident. Thereafter, the jury found that Huffaker and Tatum falsified a police Incident/Investigation Report regarding an unlawful December 18 traffic stop and ma*****na seizure. Tatum then forwarded both the falsified press release and report to an FBI agent who was investigating the stop. In addition to engaging in the extortion and obstruction of justice conspiracies with Huffaker in 2017 and 2018, Tatum admitted in his plea agreement that he engaged in additional criminal conduct. Specifically, Tatum admitted that in 2015 and 2016, he stole ma*****na from the Rohnert Park police station, extorted ma*****na from drivers on Highway 101, sold ma*****na for personal profit, and committed tax evasion, netting himself over $400,000 in illicit proceeds.
Huffaker will begin serving his sentence on September 15, 2026, and Tatum will begin serving his sentence on January 11, 2027.