Mysterious Bay Space criminal business had nationwide achieve, legislation enforcement imposter, ties to shootings and notorious murder, feds say

OAKLAND — On April 13, 2020, a white Jeep Cherokee pulled up alongside a Honda containing Antioch resident Kameron Booth and just one other human being as it drove past the 23rd Road exit on Interstate 880, then opened fire.

Mortally wounded from gunfire, Booth pulled above, stumbled to the trunk, and in desperation made available a passing motorist $10,000 for a undertaking: He explained he experienced $400,000 in funds that needed to be shipped to one more human being. Right before he could hand in excess of the cash, Booth collapsed. Paramedics rushed him to a clinic but he died from his injuries two months later.

Booth’s killing stays unsolved, but this thirty day period federal prosecutors in Sacramento exposed a bombshell: Just four times just before the capturing, an Alameda County prosecutor received a contact from a woman professing to be a U.S. Lawyer, inquiring about Booth. Days after the shooting, the very same woman named a CHP officer, claiming to be with the DEA, and discovered information that experienced in no way been unveiled to the public.

That female, in accordance to federal prosecutors, was the co-leader of a mysterious prison corporation that has been formally joined to id theft, marijuana trafficking in many states, and EDD fraud throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. But court data reveal the investigation also requires unsolved violent crimes, guns concealed in magic formula compartments, and tries to retrieve souped-up common autos that experienced been seized by regulation enforcement.

The alleged leaders of the firm are a male named Quinten Moody, 37, of Dublin, and a lady named Myra Minks, 46. Minks, Moody’s onetime girlfriend, is accused of repeatedly impersonating legislation enforcement officials, which includes in the calls relevant to Booth’s homicide. The 3rd defendant, Jessica Tang, 48, of Sacramento, is billed with EDD fraud, but she’s very best recognised for her function in a infamous East Bay murder from 1999.

An indictment in opposition to the trio, filed June 16, incorporates expenses of conspiracy to distribute marijuana to “California, Georgia, Nevada, Texas, and somewhere else,” phony impersonation of an officer, aggravated id theft, and mail fraud. Most of the charges are aimed at Minks and Moody, although Tang is accused of fully commited EDD fraud by filling out phony unemployment varieties in other people’s names.

Moody stays in federal custody in Sacramento, though Tang has been released on a $50,000 bond, court docket data exhibit. Minks was arrested June 21 in Nevada and is in custody there, pending extradition to Sacramento, wherever a federal justice of the peace will choose whether to free her or retain her in jail whilst the case is pending.

Minks’ previous legal heritage contain other attempts at impersonation, such as id theft. In 2005, she was billed in an alleged id theft scheme that associated her and yet another human being allegedly obtaining jewellery with a victim’s credit rating card. Minks’ co-defendant later on escaped from the Sonoma County jail the grievance alleges the two “discussed arrangements” for the escape beforehand. The rates have been dropped a thirty day period right after they were being submitted, but Minks was later on convicted and sentenced to federal prison for an unrelated fraud plan, data demonstrate.

In 1999, then-Pinole people Raymond Wong and Tang allegedly murdered and mutilated 21-yr-previous Alice Sin, dumping her entire body in a Nevada desert and staging the crime scene to seem as though it was committed by a racist despise group. Wong was courting the two girls police consider the motive was similar to the like triangle. In 2011, each had been charged with murder. Tang pleaded guilty to accessory and been given probation and group assistance, while Wong was attempted, convicted, and sentenced to 50 several years to life.

Moody, in the meantime, has twice dodged severe legal convictions. He was accused of beating his then-wife with a blunt item in Alameda County in 2014, but the charges ended up dropped when the alleged victim’s legal professional showed up in court and mentioned she did not motivation prosecution. In 2010, he defeat a federal gun possession case when a choose dominated two U.S. Park officers illegally searched his motor vehicle, the place they found a pistol hidden in a key compartment, court docket data present.

The charging files describe Minks as a daring impostor of regulation enforcement officers, alleging she claimed to be a U.S. Legal professional, a member of the Solution Company, an FBI agent, a DEA agent — also an airline worker — and that she and Moody drafted cast home release orders to receive autos that experienced been seized by law enforcement. For occasion, in October 2020 Minks allegedly termed the Colma law enforcement department, posing as a Solution Company agent, and requested them to release a Jeep that experienced been seized from a single of Moody’s associates, Gregory Bell, four months earlier.

Federal prosecutors are focusing on Bell as properly. He now faces federal gun possession expenses in San Francisco and Atlanta. Court documents allege that he and Moody were arrested in Roseville in June 2021, right after police there tried to pull above a car or truck containing the two adult males at the course of the FBI. Moody, the driver, allegedly sped absent from police, achieving speeds of 100 miles for each hour, prior to they both of those ended up arrested. Bell’s mobile phone reportedly contained a video clip of him and yet another man taking pictures guns at a Georgia gun variety.

Prosecutors also allege that in 2019 Bell possessed a pistol — afterwards connected to nonfatal shootings in Oakland and San Francisco — that was uncovered in the hidden compartment of a white Jeep. Throughout a search of his residence, authorities allegedly uncovered an unregistered “assault pistol” loaded with 100 rounds, as very well as 40 lbs of marijuana.

Some of Minks’ alleged impersonations appeared to be makes an attempt to sniff out federal informants. On April 27, 2020, she allegedly called a federal prosecutor in Georgia, posing as U.S. Lawyer “Cynthia Lee” in the Bay Region to inquire about a human being referred to as “Associate 1” that experienced been cooperating with the government, naming Moody as a cannabis trafficker. The Georgia prosecutor allegedly verified the existence of an investigation involving Associate 1 and Moody, then discovered there ended up no federal prosecutors named Cynthia Lee in the Bay Space.

Three months previously, when Minks allegedly known as the Alameda County DA’s office, the concentrate of the contact was Booth, according to federal authorities. A DA spokeswoman declined to comment on specifics and DA Nancy O’Malley did not return an e mail looking for remark.

When Booth was gunned down 4 times just after the phone, it was not his initially shootout, nor the 1st time he’d been caught with enormous quantities of funds. In November 2018, Kameron Booth and his brother, Kyle Booth, were arrested and charged with gun and marijuana possession right after they were associated in a gun battle in San Leandro. Law enforcement searched their Hayward home and discovered approximately $2 million in cash and 180 lbs . of marijuana, as effectively as a pound of cannabis and about $43,000 in their automobile.

Kyle Booth was shot and killed four months right before his brother, in Atlanta. Law enforcement say Kyle Booth and another California resident, Byron Edwards, were being driving via the northeastern district of the Georgia capital when one more car or truck pulled alongside them and opened fireplace, killing both equally adult males. Authorities have not declared any arrests in the double homicide, nor publicly exposed a motive over and above indicating the victims seem to have been specific.