Latest news with #StateLawEnforcementDivision
Yahoo
3 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
SC police, ICE arrest 80 people in raid of unlicensed Charleston County nightclub
Local, state and federal law enforcement gather Monday, June 2, 2025, to announce arrests during a raid of a Summerville-area nightclub a day earlier. (Left to right, front row): State Law Enforcement Division Chief Mark Keel, Gov. Henry McMaster, Charleston County Sheriff Carl Ritchie and Attorney General Alan Wilson. (Screenshot of Charleston County Sheriff's Office livestream) Two alleged cartel members and one person wanted by Interpol for murder in Honduras were among at least 80 people arrested during a weekend sting operation at an unlicensed nightclub in Charleston County. Federal, state and local law enforcement raided the Alamo nightclub, located in an industrial area outside the town of Summerville, around 3 a.m. Sunday. The club had no license to operate or to sell alcohol. About 200 people were there at the time of the raid. The investigation, dubbed 'Operation Last Stand,' continues, Charleston County Sheriff Carl Ritchie said during a news conference Monday. They included 10 juveniles as young as 13 — including one reported as missing — as well as potential human trafficking victims. They were turned over to social service agencies. Officers also seized guns, cocaine and cash, Ritchie said, without giving details on the amounts. Those arrested included two people believed to be 'high-level cartel members' associated with the Mexico-based Los Zetas cartel and the Venezuela-based Tren de Aragua gang, said U.S. Department of Homeland Security agent Cardell Morant. He referred to the club scene as a 'cartel afterparty.' More than 80% of those arrested are living in the United States illegally, he said. The law enforcement agencies went in with 116 warrants for 80 people. Five people were arrested for criminal offenses, Morant said. Law enforcement officials did not provide names of those arrested or a list of charges. 'Some of these individuals have been charged with serious offenses,' which include the person wanted internationally for murder, Morant said. Other charges made in the raid include 'assault on a police officer, resisting arrest, possession of a controlled substance and a felon in possession of a firearm,' he said. The investigation began in November with officers looking into noise complaints and reports of assaults occurring in the parking lot, Ritchie said. 'Bad guys like to celebrate too. So, this was their way to let off some steam, and they were, unfortunately, doing it right here in the community,' Morant said. 'This operation was not only about immigration enforcement. It was also about restoring order, removing threats from our streets and ensuring the safety and well-being of Charleston-area residents,' he added. About a dozen local, state and federal agencies participated in the raid. 'We will continue to work to bring justice to those that have been victimized and also bring those to justice that have violated our laws,' said State Law Enforcement Division Chief Mark Keel.
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
SC transgender teen charged with threating to kill U.S. Rep. Mace
U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace talked to reporters at the Greenville County GOP convention at the Greenville Convention Center on Monday April 14, 2025. (Photo by Mark Susko/Special to the SC Daily Gazette) An Upstate transgender teenager faces up to five years in prison on accusations of threatening on social media to kill U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace. Samuel Theodore Cain, 19, of Greenville — who goes by Roxie Wolfe online — was arrested Thursday and charged with threatening the life of a public official, according to the State Law Enforcement Division. The official is not identified in SLED's four-sentence release or the attached arrest warrant. Portions of the warrant are redacted as per the agency's policy not to identify victims, according to a spokeswoman. But the 1st District congresswoman confirmed on multiple social media posts that she was the target. According to SLED, Cain posted the threat April 26 on X, formerly Twitter. Four days later, Cain 'admitted to authoring and posting the threat' to federal agents. 'I'm going to assassinate (redacted) with a gun and I'm being 100% dead a–' the post read on the arrest warrant. While that post has been deleted from X, a repost of it shows the threat in all caps with 'Representative Nancy Mace' in the part that SLED blacked out. Mace thanked Capitol Police and SLED on social media for arresting Cain, who she called a 'trans activist.' While the arrest warrant says Cain is a white male, Cain has identified on social media as a transgender girl who goes by the pronouns she/her. Cain remained Thursday evening at the Greenville County jail. A bond hearing is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. Friday. Cain faces a maximum penalty of a $5,000 fine and five years in prison. The SC Daily Gazette was unable to determine if Cain has an attorney. Mace, who is mulling a bid for governor next year, has repeatedly and intentionally offended transgender people in recent months. Cain's post came five days after Mace's contentious exchange with a transgender student following a speech at the University of South Carolina. After the 20-year-old student asked Mace to apologize for using the word 'tranny,' Mace asked her if the word was derogatory, then repeated it three times and posted a clip of the exchange on X. 'The radical tr*ns movement is no longer just about pronouns,' Mace wrote in one of her multiple posts about Cain's arrest. 'It's about silencing anyone who dares to speak the truth. With threats. With violence. With hate.' According to Mace, it wasn't the first threat on her life this year. Last month, Mace told Republicans at the Greenville County GOP convention that she was among the targets of a Pennsylvania man charged with threatening to kill President Donald Trump and other officials.
Yahoo
21-04-2025
- Yahoo
SLED charges Charleston woman for creating fake eviction notice
CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCBD)—State agents charged a Charleston woman last week after they determined she had created a fake eviction notice. 29-year-old Virginia Skye Coaxum was charged with forgery of less than $10,000 on Friday, the State Law Enforcement Division said. Deputies with the Berkeley County Sheriff's Office executed an eviction on a tenant of the Marrington Village Apartment back in December later discovered the notice was faked and SLED was asked to investigate. On February 4, Coaxum admitted to a special agent in a recorded interview that she had helped create the fake Writ of Ejectment. She was booked into the Berkeley County Detention Center. The Ninth Circuit Solicitor's Office will prosecute her case. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
15-04-2025
- Yahoo
After record number of SC police dogs killed, bill would increase penalties
Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott holds up a photo of Fargo, a police dog killed during a shootout in 2011, during a Senate subcommittee meeting on Tuesday, April 15, 2025. (Screenshot of SCETV legislative livestream) COLUMBIA — After a burglary suspect shot police dog Coba to death last June, prosecutors wanted to put the perpetrator in prison for as long as possible. The man was sentenced to 33 years, but only five of those were for killing Coba, said David Stumbo, the solicitor who prosecuted the case in Newberry County. 'We didn't believe that five years was nearly enough time,' Stumbo told a panel of legislators Tuesday. Police dogs killed in the line of duty in 2024 Coba, a State Law Enforcement Division dog, was shot and killed June 11 while officers served a warrant. Wick, a Richland County Sheriff's dog, was struck by a car June 20 while chasing a suspect across a highway. Mikka, a Lee County Sheriff's dog, died after the patrol car she was in caught fire Sept. 20 during a shootout. Kodak, a Richland County Sheriff's dog, died Oct. 10 from injuries he received from getting tangled in a razor wire fence while tracking a suspect. Bumi, a Richland County Sheriff's dog, was shot and killed Dec. 23 during a police chase. Source: Officer Down Memorial Page Coba was one of five police dogs killed in the line of duty last year, an all-time high for the state, according to Officer Down, which tracks law enforcement deaths. A bill senators advanced to the floor Tuesday by a unanimous vote would increase the potential fines and prison time for anyone who kills or injures a police dog or horse in South Carolina. The existing penalty for killing a police dog or horse is up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $5,000. That's not nearly enough to show the state is serious about protecting its police dogs, said Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott. His department lost three police dogs in the line of duty last year, the most of any county. 'Unfortunately, the penalty for killing these dogs, for injuring these dogs, is very minimal,' Lott said. Under the proposal, killing a four-legged officer could come with a sentence of up to 10 years in prison and a fine of $20,000. Injuring one would be punishable by up to five years in prison and $5,000 fine. 'This protection is what's deserved for these canines,' said John Blackmon, president of the South Carolina Fraternal Order of Police. 'We owe them a debt, and this protection is that debt.' Police dogs often save the lives of police officers by going into situations too dangerous for a person or pulling attention away from their handlers, law enforcement officers said. Lott pointed to Sgt. Warren Cavanagh, who credits his Belgian Malinois, Fargo, with saving his life by taking bullets meant for him during a 2011 shootout. Fargo was the first police dog killed in the state, Lott said. Police dogs can sniff out drugs and explosives, find the source of arson and take down suspects on the run, said Greenville Sheriff Hobart Lewis. They typically live with their handlers, allowing them to bond both on and off the clock, he said. 160 dogs rescued from dogfighting ring in Marion, Dillon counties 'These dogs are certainly more than just a tool,' Lewis said. 'They're law enforcement officers. In our case, they're deputies. They're partners. They're family.' The dogs are not like other pets, Lewis said. They go through a strict selection process and upwards of 600 hours of training to get ready for duty, he said. That means the dogs are costly to replace. A dog straight out of handler school — not even fully trained for duty — costs at least $12,500, Lewis said. Other law enforcement agencies, such as Horry County, have reported spending as much as $18,000 for a single police dog, according to a review of the bill by the state's fiscal experts. 'These animals represent a significant investment of time, money and training,' Lewis said. Law enforcement officers have seen an increase in violence directed toward police dogs in the past year, officers told the committee. Along with the record number of dogs killed, law enforcement agencies have had an unknown number of dogs hurt while on duty, Lewis said. Among them was Micky, a Greenville County police dog stabbed repeatedly while deputies attempted to serve a warrant last June, Lewis said. 'These aren't rare cases anymore,' Lewis said. 'They are becoming more and more common, and that should alarm us all.' When he was a police officer in Goose Creek and North Charleston, Sen. Brian Adams knew to stay behind the police dogs when they were on assignment together. He was afraid of what he knew they could do, but he also saw how much they helped their handlers, said Adams, the bill's sponsor, who's retired from law enforcement. 'They are a great tool and a great partner for our canine handlers,' the Goose Creek Republican said.
Yahoo
14-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
SC sheriff, former county supervisor face public corruption-related charges
Outside the Richland County Courthouse on Friday, March 14, 2025. (Photo by Jessica Holdman/SC Daily Gazette) COLUMBIA — A South Carolina sheriff and a former county supervisor stand accused of laundering $27,000 in federal COVID relief funds to illegally inflate the sheriff's paycheck. A grand jury indicted newly suspended Williamsburg County Sheriff Stephen Gardner and the county's former supervisor, Tiffany Cooks, on five counts each, which included charges of money laundering, embezzlement, misconduct, ethics violations and conspiracy. Each crime carries maximum sentences of five to 10 years in prison, according to prosecutors. Judge Heath Taylor released both Gardner and Cooks following a hearing held Friday in Columbia on the promise they would make all court appearances. If either were to miss a hearing they would be jailed and held on a bond of $100,000. Neither Gardner nor Cooks made any kind of statement in court. Gov. Henry McMaster suspended Gardner, a Kingstree native with 25 years of law enforcement experience, after the indictment Wednesday. The governor appointed Clemson Wright Jr., a special agent with the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, as the county's acting sheriff. Cooks, elected in 2018, served one term in office as supervisor but was defeated in the 2022 Democratic primary election by former county Sheriff Kelvin Washington. She is currently working as administrator for the town of Estill, 130 miles away in Hampton County. In court, state prosecutor Creighton Waters alleged Gardner and Cooks schemed to re-route tens of thousands of dollars in coronavirus relief funds to pay the sheriff overtime wages, despite the fact the sheriff was a salaried county employee already earning six figures and therefore not eligible for overtime pay. Waters claimed they did this by overpaying a friend of the sheriff contracted to do landscaping work for the county. Cooks would cut checks to the landscaper, who would then cash them and give the money over to the sheriff. The two would meet off site in a parking lot and the landscaper would 'hand over a big old pile of cash,' said Waters, assistant deputy attorney general. The sheriff then paid the landscaper his hourly wages out of the cash and pocketed the rest himself. Both Gardner and Cooks allegedly approached the landscaper telling him that all of this was above board, and he would not get in any legal trouble. 'Ultimately, your honor, this was a farce,' Waters told the judge. The State Law Enforcement Division opened an investigation into the Williamsburg County officials in February 2023, after Cooks' successor discovered a combined $210,000 in overtime pay to salaried elected officials in the county, The Post and Courier and The Kingstree News previously reported. In addition to the sheriff, Cooks allegedly funneled money to herself, the treasurer, the clerk of court, the auditor and a probate judge. Those other alleged payments were not part of the indictment from the attorney general's office. Federal prosecutors traditionally have taken the lead on these types of cases involving misappropriation of the federal funds doled out to businesses, non-profits and individuals, as well as state and local governments strapped for cash in the midst of a global pandemic. Waters told the SC Daily Gazette federal prosecutors ultimately did not pursue federal charges and handed the case over to the state attorney general about three months ago. He declined to say why.
