Fbi

Several people on board a United Airlines flight from Chicago to Orange County had to restrain an unruly man who was reportedly threatening fellow passengers, FBI officials said. FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller identified the man as 26-year-old Arash Durrani, also known as Ash, KTLA News reported Thursday. According to Eimiller, Durrani was taken into custody when the plane landed and will be charged with interference with a flight crew, a federal offense. Durrani is an actor, model and founder of Grow Clothing, a company geared toward promoting awareness of social movements and charities, according to imdb.com.

Looking to avoid becoming a crime statistic? Move to Irvine. In 2011, for the eighth year in a row, the Orange County city had the lowest violent crime rate of any U.S. city with a population larger than 100,000, the FBI said Monday. Irvine -- population 214,872 -- reported only 120 violent crimes last year, the same number as the year before. Among the crimes: two murders, 67 aggravated assaults, 11 rapes and 40 robberies. Random comparison: Similarly sized Modesto had more than 10 times the number of robberies.

A 41-year-old Baldwin Park man, believed to have been involved in the attempted bombing of the Vietnamese embassy in Thailand earlier this year, was arrested by FBI officials at John Wayne International Airport late Friday night, officials said. Vo Van Duc was arrested by the FBI on suspicion of using weapons of mass destruction after he got off an Alaska Airlines flight about 9 p.m., according to a statement released by FBI spokeswoman Cheryl Mimura in Los Angeles.

Editor’s Note: The following article contains allegations of child molestation and abuse that some readers may find offensive. Now in her 40s, married and living in Florida, Jackie Zudis said learning that the man who claimed to be her father, George Joseph England, 65, was going to be freed from prison compelled her to tell her story to the FBI in a videotaped interview shown to the public. In the 45-minute interview, which took place in Florida last week and was released to the media Thursday, Zudis recounted her life with England.

A man wanted for 16 Southern California area robberies is now also wanted for hitting a Newport Beach bank Monday, making off with more than $800, police said. At 12:30 p.m. the robber walked into the California National Bank, 901 Dover Drive, Newport Beach, and handed the teller a note demanding money, police said. Investigators identified the man through a surveillance video of the robbery as the so-called Irreconcilable Differences bandit. He is wanted for a number of robberies in the Los Angeles area, Sgt. Lloyd Whisenant said.

Deirdre Newman Two offices and a residence were raided today by a swarm of federal agents investigating a trio that includes a Newport Beach couple. The investigation of Lorenzo Espinoza, his wife Cynthia Espinoza and their associate Pedro Rodriguez involves a host of alleged crimes. They include conspiracy to engage in fraud, attempting to defraud the IRS and attempting to launder money. IRS, FBI and Department of Housing and Urban Development agents are all involved in the investigation.

The FBI arrested two Huntington Beach residents last week on suspicion of mail and wire fraud, officials said. Members of a Telemarketing Fraud Task Force arrested Kristopher A. Menden and Adrienne C. Eichenbaum alleging they used an advance fee loan scheme to trick customers into paying insurance deposit fees between $300 and $1,500. Victims then found out no loans were funded, officials said. The investigation was initiated based on a July 2 complaint received by the FBI from the North Carolina Attorney General's office alleging the crimes.

Deepa Bharath COSTA MESA -- Continuing the nationwide trend of declining crime statistics, overall crime in the city was down by about 7% during the first half of this year, compared with the same period in 1999, according to numbers released this week by the FBI. There were fewer violent crimes this year, except for cases of forcible rape. That number went up from eight last year to 13 this year. There were four murders during the first six months of last year compared with none from January to June this year.

Costa Mesa man charged by FBI A Costa Mesa man was one of four people the FBI charged on Friday with multiple counts of mail fraud and money laundering that involved 800 victims across the country, officials said. James S. Eberhart, 61, was named in the indictment along with Eugene M. Carriere, 53, of Sunset Beach, Richard Hines, 57, of San Pedro, and Kenneth Gottlieb, 59, of Los Angeles, according to the indictment. Eberhart and Carriere were co-founders of the now defunct YES Entertainment Network Inc. in Newport Beach.

EDITOR'S NOTE: The Daily Pilot has agreed to republish The Verdict, the ever-popular column written for many years by retired Corona Del Mar jurist and historian Robert Gardner, in exchange for donations to the Surfrider Foundation. This column was originally published April 3, 1993. Tom Heffernan was one of the better people. A barrel-chested guy with a nice smile and a deep voice, Tom was the resident special agent of the FBI during the early days of World War II. I was an ONI officer stationed in San Pedro.

Several people on board a United Airlines flight from Chicago to Orange County had to restrain an unruly man who was reportedly threatening fellow passengers, FBI officials said. FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller identified the man as 26-year-old Arash Durrani, also known as Ash, KTLA News reported Thursday. According to Eimiller, Durrani was taken into custody when the plane landed and will be charged with interference with a flight crew, a federal offense. Durrani is an actor, model and founder of Grow Clothing, a company geared toward promoting awareness of social movements and charities, according to imdb.com.

Looking to avoid becoming a crime statistic? Move to Irvine. In 2011, for the eighth year in a row, the Orange County city had the lowest violent crime rate of any U.S. city with a population larger than 100,000, the FBI said Monday. Irvine -- population 214,872 -- reported only 120 violent crimes last year, the same number as the year before. Among the crimes: two murders, 67 aggravated assaults, 11 rapes and 40 robberies. Random comparison: Similarly sized Modesto had more than 10 times the number of robberies.

COSTA MESA - Violent crime in Costa Mesa dropped slightly in the first half of 2011, while property crime increased by about 70 incidents when compared with the same time period last year. The FBI this week released its preliminary unified crime reports (UCR), which showed that between January and June 2011, there were 114 violent crimes citywide - down from 122 during the same period in 2010. The city saw an increase in murder, from one to three, and a drop in aggravated assault from 58 to 49. Property crimes increased from 1,565 to 1,632 in the beginning of this year, with six arson cases compared with three.

SANTA ANA - Wednesday's countywide gang sweep - a three-year effort dubbed Operation Black Flag - began with a lead in Costa Mesa, law enforcement officials said. Following the initial tip, the investigative trail led Santa Ana police investigators to Cesar "Roach" Munguia, 31. The high-ranking member of Forming Kaos, a Costa Mesa street gang, is accused of dealing guns, methamphetamines, cocaine and heroin, said Costa Mesa Police Capt. Les Gogerty. Costa Mesa was "basically where it started," Gogerty said.

Accused of impersonating a G-Man, a Seal Beach woman met real FBI agents Thursday when they arrested her at Fashion Island in Newport Beach, authorities said. Karen Hanover, 44, was arrested without incident two days after federal prosecutors charged her in a Santa Ana federal court with using special technology to mask her phone number and disguise her voice so she could scare people into thinking she was a federal agent. The criminal complaint accuses Hanover of targeting people at real estate education seminars to pay her a $30,000 "fee" to help them find commercial properties to buy. Hanover spent all of her time allegedly finding new investors to swindle out of their money instead of actually finding property, something she wasn't qualified to do anyway, prosecutors claim.

ORANGE — In November 2004, a retired Newport Beach couple vanished days before Thanksgiving. Tom and Jackie Hawks were selling their boat to a Long Beach couple, Skylar and Jennifer Deleon, and the Hawkses were never heard from again. Newport Beach police cracked the case using mounds of evidence, including power of attorney documents that the Deleons believed had been deleted from their computer hard drive. The Deleons were convicted of murder and handed life sentences.

Violent crime in Newport Beach dropped nearly 9% in 2009 compared with the year before, police statistics show. In an annual FBI report on violent crime in U.S. cities with more than 100,000 residents, data show Newport Beach is following the national trend of fewer homicides, rapes and robberies. There were 91 violent crimes in the city last year compared with 99 in 2008. There was a slight uptick in aggravated assaults, to 54 from 50, in 2008. There were fewer incidents of all four offenses nationwide, the FBI reported.

Irvine is still the safest large city in the nation — and the city now boasts the lowest serious crime rate in its history, according to new numbers released by the FBI. The preliminary crime data for 2009 released Monday shows that Irvine last year experienced just 0.7 violent crimes — murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault — per 1,000 residents. New York City, by comparison, had 5.5 violent crimes per 1,000 residents, and Los Angeles had 5.8. Irvine had 14.

Friday’s take-over robbery of a Newport Beach bank may be the work of the “20 Questions Bandits,” a group of armed men who’ve robbed half a dozen other banks in Southern California since last year, FBI officials said Monday. About 5:48 p.m. Friday, two armed men in dark clothes and ski masks entered the Bank of America branch at 1016 Irvine Ave. They ordered everyone inside to get on the ground, hopped the teller counter and demanded money from some of the bank tellers, said Newport Beach Police Lt. Craig Fox. After getting a hold of the cash the men left the bank and fled in a black Chevrolet Tahoe parked on the building’s east side, Fox said.