Two 911 calls in May 2024 tipped off federal agents to a key development in an ongoing public corruption investigation that has since become the subject of a major federal criminal trial involving Oakland’s former mayor, Sheng Thao.
Mario Juarez, a businessman and political operative, called police twice — on May 3, 2024, and again the following day — to report he had been assaulted at the Oakland waterfront offices of California Waste Solutions, the city’s recycling contractor.
A group of 10 men had beaten him up, he said, and the owners of the company brought those men together…