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By Miriam Raftery
September 10, 2024 (Boulevard, CA) –Former Manzanita Tribal Police Chief Anthony Reyes Vasquez, 52, was sentenced Monday in federal court in San Diego for selling hundreds of badges and stealing $300,000 from the Manzanita Band of the Kumeyaay Nation. Vasquez pleaded guilty to the charges in 2021.
Though he could have faced up to 10 years in prison, he was sentenced to only 10 months of home confinement, 12 consecutive weekends in custody ,and three years of probation. He has also agreed to pay restitution to the tribe for the $300,000 in stolen funds—nearly half of the $700,000 in “donations” obtained for the bogus police badges.
Prosecutors have said that tribal leaders did not know that Vazquez was selling police badges and police department “memberships” to unqualified people, granting them police privileges including the right to concealed carry weapons permits.
The 3,600-acre reservation was created in 1891 and has approximately 70 residents.
"This defendant sold law enforcement badges and jeopardized public safety,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Randy Grossman said following Vasquez’s plea deal three years ago. “His manipulative and self-serving ploy also significantly undermined state laws governing the issuance of credentials to carry concealed weapons.” Grossman thanked prosecutors Andrew Galvin and Frances Lewis, as well as FBI agents, for their excellent work on this case.
The scheme enabled wealthy individuals to obtain the badges after they made payments ranging from $5,000 to $100,000. Prosecutors accused Vasquez, who is from Ventura, and other tribal police officers of recruiting rich Los Angeles area residents to join the force on paper, though most lacked law enforcement qualifications, never did any work for the police department, and most never even visited the reservation in rural East County near Boulevard.
Two men in Los Angeles have also pleaded guilty in the phony badge scheme, with one sentenced to probation and another awaiting sentencing.
Vasquez served as police chief for the Manzanita tribe from 2012 to 2019. According to the U.S. Attorney’s office, he pocketed kickback payments from recruiters, as well as paying himself approximately $2,000 a month in travel expenses related to the scam.
The Manzanita Tribal Police Department, was not recognized by the Bureau of Indian Affairs or the State of California as a police department, and it did not have the authority to enforce federal or state laws, on or off the reservation.
As part of his plea, Vazquez also admitted that he suffered a felony drug conviction in 1992 and illegally possessed approximately twenty-four firearms while serving as Chief of Police of the Manzanita Tribal Police Department.
“Anthony Vazquez, a convicted felon, collected hundreds of thousands of dollars in ‘donations’ from dozens of people - to line his own pockets - in exchange for giving them police credentials,” said FBI Special Agent in Charge Suzanne Turner. “This brazen scheme not only deprived the Manzanita Band of funding, but also caused numerous untrained ‘officers’ to believe they were authorized to carry concealed weapons on and off the reservation and enforce laws with little to no training.”
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