Attorney general, in Las Vegas visit, praises Southern Nevada partners in fighting crime

Strong interdepartmental relationships are what help bolster Nevada’s law enforcement landscape, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said during a visit Monday to Nevada.

“When I became attorney general three and a half years ago, I knew that the most powerful tool we would have to address violent crime was our partnerships,” Garland said during the meeting with Jason Frierson, the U.S. attorney for Nevada, and a roundtable of law enforcement officials, including representatives from Metro, North Las Vegas, Henderson, Clark County School District and the U.S. Marshals Service.

Garland’s visit, at the U.S. attorney’s office in Las Vegas, was aimed at checking in with local officials and specifically focused on tackling violent crime.

“The Justice Department is working here in Nevada and across the country to arrest violent felons, seize and trace guns used in crimes, disrupt violent drug traffickers and prosecute the individuals and gangs who are responsible for the most and the greatest amount of violence,” Garland said.

Garland pointed to two high-profile cases his office assisted in as emblematic of how effective the partnerships between national and state law enforcement are.

In late June, 37-year-old California resident George Anthony Manzo was sentenced to 10 years in prison after federal investigators found he had planned to sell hundreds of thousands of fentanyl pills nationwide. Metro Police and the Drug Enforcement Administration worked alongside Frierson’s office on the case.

When Manzo was arrested, police confiscated more than 30,000 pills from his vehicle, and found he had already sold thousands more.

A similar case occurred in January when a man was also sentenced to 10 years in prison for conspiracy to distribute fentanyl after he was arrested for selling over 4,000 fentanyl pills in Las Vegas.

Alphaeus Johnson, 38, was arrested by Metro Police as he was traveling back from Arizona to resupply his pills, according to officials. More than 10,000 fentanyl pills were seized from his car.

The attorney general also highlighted the federal-local partnerships in cracking down on firearms offenses and disrupting gun violence.

One example, he said, was the sentencing of a Las Vegas man who illegally sold more than 200 guns without a federal firearms license. One AK-47 style assault weapon purchased from the defendant, Garland said, was used by a convicted felon to kill a Sacramento County, Calif., sheriff’s deputy and wound two California Highway Patrol officers.

He also said the partnership was involved in combating “the disturbing rise in threats against those who serve the public.

Last month, he said the local office charged a Las Vegas man for threatening to assault and murder federal officials — including federal judges — and state employees across three states and Washington, D.C.

“Public servants have to be able to go about their jobs serving the public without fearing for their lives or the lives of their family,” Garland said.

Frierson said the high-level coordination between Southern Nevada police departments and federal law enforcement agencies has made the state a standout among other offices in the country.

“When I travel the country, when I talk with one other U.S. attorneys, they all reiterate that they don’t have what we have here,” Frierson said ahead ofthe meeting.

The efforts by state and city law enforcement have shown positive effects on violent crime rates, according to the latest data from local agencies. In Metro’s jurisdiction, homicide offenses are down 16% and there are 20% less shooting victims compared to this time last year, according to the department’s statistical crime briefing.

While Garland highlighted the decrease in violent crime across the country, he also said there was always more to be done to continue to increase safety in cities.

While Nevada’s crime rate has trended downward since 2016, it still is slightly above the national average, according to FBI data. And a Metro Police briefing Friday showed a 13.7% increase in drug and narcotic offenses this year compared to the same time in 2023.

“We know that progress in many communities is still uneven,” Garland said. “And of course, there is no acceptable level of violent crime.”