DEA Investigation in Yuba County (Immigration and Customs Enforcement)

Submitted on Tuesday, April 14, 2020 - 01:01
Submitted by user: Anonymous
Submitted values are:

Select the DHS component you wish to submit your request to: : U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)
Title:
First Name: Jennings
Middle Initial:
Last Name: Brown
Suffix:
Email Address: requests@muckrock.com
Country: United States
Address 1: MuckRock News DEPT MR 91609
Address 2: 411A Highland Ave
City: Somerville
State: Massachusetts
Zip Code: 02144
Telephone Number: 617-299-1832
Fax Number:
Are you requesting records on yourself? No
If yes, you must check the perjury statement:
By initialing here you are providing your electronic signature.:
Please describe the records you are seeking as clearly and precisely as
possible:
To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act, I hereby request the following
records:

All records, specifically including previously unreleased records relating to
or mentioning investigations that resulted in a search of Fellowship of
Friends property, and resulted in the arrests of Yuba County, California,
residents Andreas Jewers, Juan Jose Domingo, and Elizabeth E. Stefani in
September 2012.

This investigation was reported on in this article published by the
Appeal-Democrat:
https://web.archive.org/web/20130606040748/http://www.appeal-democrat.com/news/dea-119600-pot-raids.html

The above Appeal-Democrat report titled "Feds raid 8 Yuba foothills
properties in pot bust" reports that a search warrant affidavit filed in
federal court in Sacramento states that the marijuana raids were the result
of two five-month investigations headed by the US Drug Enforcement
Administration. The article reports that US Homeland Security and the US
Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigators assisted the DEA.

The newspaper Appeal-Democrat also reported on this investigation in this
article:
https://www.appeal-democrat.com/yuba-county-s-fellowship-of-friends-decry-fed-s-pot/article_ed15329c-84d9-5d1d-a409-16b252df3101.html

The Appeal-Democrat report includes a link to a search warrant, which can
also be found at this link:
https://robertearlburton.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-fellowship-of-friends-pleads.html

That search warrant, with the case number 2:12-sw-00645-KJN was filed by DEA
special agent Brian Nehring in the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of
California on October 10, 2012.

I am a member of the news media and request classification as such. I have
previously written for Esquire magazine, Popular Mechanics, and Gizmodo. My
articles have been widely read, with some reaching over 1 million readers. As
such, I have a reasonable expectation of publication and my editorial and
writing skills are well established.

The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and
this request is not being made for commercial purposes.

In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me
of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the
request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if
not.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look
forward to receiving your response to this request within 20 business days,
as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

Jennings Brown

Upload documents directly:
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I am willing to pay fees for this request up to the amount of: $: 25
Select from the list below: A representative of the news media seeking
information as part of a news gathering effort and not for commercial use.
I request a waiver of all fees for this request.: I request a waiver of all
fees for this request.
Please provide an explanation for your request for a fee waiver:
I am a member of the news media and request classification as such. I have
previously written for Esquire magazine, Popular Mechanics, and Gizmodo. My
articles have been widely read, with some reaching over 1 million readers. As
such, I have a reasonable expectation of publication and my editorial and
writing skills are well established.

The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and
this request is not being made for commercial purposes.
Please select and describe in detail if you believe your request warrants
expeditious handling:
Please provide information to support your selection:

April 15, 2020 Jennings Brown MuckRock Dept MR 91609 411A Highland Ave Somerville, MA 02144 RE:     ICE FOIA Case Number 2020-ICFO-33533 Dear Brown: This acknowledges receipt of your April 14, 2020, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), for all records, specifically including previously unreleased records relating to or mentioning investigations that resulted in a search of Fellowship of Friends property, and resulted in the arrests of Yuba County, California, residents Andreas Jewers, Juan Jose Domingo, and Elizabeth E. Stefani in September 2012 (see request for details).  Your request was received in this office on April 15, 2020. Due to the increasing number of FOIA requests received by this office, we may encounter some delay in processing your request. Per Section 5.5(a) of the DHS FOIA regulations, 6 C.F.R. Part 5, ICE processes FOIA requests according to their order of receipt. Although ICE’s goal is to respond within 20 business days of receipt of your request, the FOIA does permit a 10- day extension of this time period. As your request seeks numerous documents that will necessitate a thorough and wide-ranging search, ICE will invoke a 10-day extension for your request, as allowed by Title 5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(6)(B). If you care to narrow the scope of your request, please contact our office. We will make every effort to comply with your request in a timely manner. Provisions of the FOIA allow us to recover part of the cost of complying with your request.  We shall charge you for records in accordance with the DHS Interim FOIA regulations, as they apply to media requesters.  As a media requester, you will be charged 10 cents per page for duplication; the first 100 pages are free.  We will construe the submission of your request as an agreement to pay up to $25.00. You will be contacted before any further fees are accrued. We have queried the appropriate program offices within ICE for responsive records. If any responsive records are located, they will be reviewed for determination of releasability. Please be assured that one of the processors in our office will respond to your request as expeditiously as possible. We appreciate your patience as we proceed with your request.
Your request has been assigned reference number 2020-ICFO-33533. Please refer to this identifier in any future correspondence. To check the status of an ICE FOIA/PA request, please visit . Please note that to check the status of a request, you must enter the 2020-ICFO-33533 tracking number. If you need any further assistance or would like to discuss any aspect of your request, please contact the FOIA office. You may send an e-mail to ice-foia@ice.dhs.gov, call toll free (866) 633-1182, or you may contact our FOIA Public Liaison, Fernando Pineiro, in the same manner. Additionally, you have a right to right to seek dispute resolution services from the Office of Government Information Services (OGIS) which mediates disputes between FOIA requesters and Federal agencies as a non-exclusive alternative to litigation. If you are requesting access to your own records (which is considered a Privacy Act request), you should know that OGIS does not have the authority to handle requests made under the Privacy Act of 1974. You may contact OGIS as follows: Office of Government Information Services, National Archives and Records Administration, 8601 Adelphi Road-OGIS, College Park, Maryland 20740-6001, e-mail at ogis@nara.gov; telephone at 202-741-5770; toll free at 1-877-684-6448; or facsimile at 202-741-5769. (http://www.dhs.gov/foia-status) http://www.dhs.gov/foia-status
Regards,

ICE FOIA Office
Immigration and Customs Enforcement
Freedom of Information Act Office
500 12th Street, S.W., Stop 5009
Washington, D.C. 20536-5009
Telephone: 1-866-633-1182
Visit our FOIA website at www.ice.gov/foia

Dear Jennings Brown,
The password to open the responsive records delivered in a separate email for 2020-ICFO-33533 is listed below. If you do not receive the email containing the responsive documents within a reasonable timeframe please contact our office at foia-obim@hq.dhs.gov. (mailto:foia-obim@hq.dhs.gov)
Document Password: E459boCr
Sincerely, OBIM FOIA Branch

Jennings Brown,

ICE's final response to your FOIA request, 2020-ICFO-33533, for all records, specifically including previously unreleased records relating to or mentioning investigations that resulted in a search of Fellowship of Friends property, and resulted in the arrests of Yuba County, California, residents Andreas Jewers, Juan Jose Domingo, and Elizabeth E. Stefani in September 2012 (see request for details) is attached.

Please note that the attachment may be password protected. If you are prompted to enter a password when opening the attachment and you did not receive a password it may be in your junk/spam folder.

Sincerely,
ICE FOIA