Ventura County man pleads guilty to stealing more than $300k while serving as tribal police chief

VENTURA COUNTY, Calif. - A Camarillo man pleaded guilty on Monday to stealing more than $300,000 while he served as the chief of a tribal police department in San Diego County.

49-year-old Anthony Reyes Vazquez was the head of the Manzanita Tribal Police Department from 2012 to 2018 which serviced a reservation that is home to the Manzanita Band of the Kumeyaay Nation.

According to a plea agreement filed in the San Diego District Court, Vazquez sold fake badges to buyers for substantial prices saying they could become members of the Manzanita Tribal Police Department and have the privileges available to all law enforcement officers such as carrying concealed weapons.

The US Department of Justice said the Manzanita Tribal Police Department was not recognized by the Bureau of Indian Affairs or the State of California as a police department and therefore did not have the authority to enforce federal or state laws on or off the reservation.

Vazquez admitted that he and other tribal police officers recruited wealthy individuals in the Los Angeles area to become members of the Manzanita Tribal Police Department. Those individuals reportedly had little to no law enforcement experience prior to joining.

Vazquez and his recruiters asked these people to pay between $5,000 to $100,000 to become a member of the Manzanita police.

Members of this "VIP Group" were not expected to perform any law enforcement services for the police department and many had never visited the reservation.

As a result of this effort, dozens of people paid the recruiters and, in return, were made members of the Manzanita Tribal Police Department.

Vazquez said he paid cash kickbacks or commissions to the recruiters who helped him and paid himself about $2,000 per month as purported reimbursement for travel expenses from his home to the reservation.

In addition, Vazquez admitted to pocketing about $300,000 in donations from the VIP Group, which he said should have instead been given to the Manzanita Band.

Vazquez did not disclose to the Manzanita Band that he was selling these memberships to their police department to unqualified members or that he was paying himself with money collected by recruiters.

As part of his plea, Vazquez also admitted to a felony drug conviction in 1992 and that he previously illegally possessed about two dozen firearms while serving as the Manzanita Tribal Police Chief.

Vazquez is scheduled for sentencing by US District Judge Gonzalo P. Curiel on Jan. 24, 2022, at which time he will face a statutory maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison.

This case was investigated by the FBI with help from the Los Angeles Police Department.