SISKIYOU COUNTY - On March 15, 2017, California Department of Justice (DOJ special agents and agents with the California Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) joined the Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office (SCSO) in a special enforcement operation targeting lawbreakers in the Happy Camp area.

The law enforcement officers and agents conducted early morning probation and parole compliance checks and executed arrest warrants for people who had failed to make their mandatory court appearances.  Additionally, they checked in on registered sex offenders to ensure they were complying with sex registry laws.

“This demonstrates law enforcement’s commitment to rid communities of law breakers and crime,” said California Statewide Law Enforcement Association (CSLEA) President Alan Barcelona.  “No one wants to live in fear of their safety or the safety of their family members.  When you target suspects, who are making communities unsafe, residents can breathe a little sigh of relief.   The work  these officers and agents do is dangerous, but they are committed to public safety.”

The law enforcement teams visited 20 sites and arrested the following five people:

• Katrina Garcia, 19, of Happy Camp, failure to comply with probation requirements.
• Rick Lester, 29, of Happy Camp, failure to comply with probation requirements; a probation search revealed he was in possession of .5 gram of methamphetamine; Lester was also found to be in illegal possession of drug paraphernalia, ammunition, and an illegal weapon.
• Kristy Goodwin, 51, of Somes Bar, illegal possession of a handgun and ammunition; she was also charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition and booked for a felony violation of probation.
• John Garrison, 31, of Somes Bar, failure to comply with probation requirements.  He was further detained for a possible parole-related violation.

Gene “Gino” Wright, of Happy Camp fled a Somes Bar location on foot and is being sought for various charges.

“I would like to thank the many federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies that participated in this successful compliance and arrest operation,” said Sheriff Jon Lopey.  “We will be conducting more multi-agency operations in the future and we will target areas of the county that have exhibited an increase in property and violent crime reports. Multi-agency operations of this kind maximize the resources of SCSO and other agencies and exponentially exact a greater impact on crime and puts offenders on notice that we are not going to tolerate illegal criminal activity in this or other areas of the county.”

The operation included peace officers from:

• SCSO (field, detective, and jail units),
• Siskiyou County Probation Department (SCPD),
• the Siskiyou Unified Major Investigation Team (SUMIT), which is made up of Yreka Police Department, SCSO, SCPD,
• California Department of Justice,
• Siskiyou County District Attorney’s Office, Weed Police Department,
• California Alcohol Beverage Control,
• and California Highway Patrol,
• California State Parole,
• and law enforcement officers from the United States Forest Service (USFS)