U.S. Attorney General visits Southern Nevada law enforcement officials

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland visited Las Vegas on Monday, meeting with local law enforcement.

Garland and Jason Frierson, the U.S. attorney for the District of Nevada, both addressed reporters on Monday before a closed-door meeting with local law enforcement officials in downtown Las Vegas. Garland emphasized work that the office has done to address violent crime and fentanyl distribution.

“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.

Last month, Garland had a planned trip to Nevada to speak at the National Bar Association’s convention, but canceled the plans following the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump.

While speaking to reporters on Monday, Garland emphasized recent federal convictions in Nevada. In June, a California man was sentenced to 10 years in prison for distributing fentanyl pills throughout the country. The man, George Manzo, of California, was arrested in 2021 while traveling to Las Vegas from Phoenix with about 30,000 pills containing fentanyl, according to previous press release from the Justice Department.

Garland said the U.S. attorney’s office in Nevada investigated the crime with the Justice Department’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force program.

“A single dose of fentanyl can be lethal,” Garland said. “And this office is working relentlessly to get fentanyl out of our communities.”

He also highlighted a federal sentencing from January, in which Charles Martin Ellis, of North Las Vegas, was ordered to serve two years and eight months in prison for illegally buying and selling more than 200 firearms without a federal firearms license. An AK-47-style gun that Ellis sold was later used by a man in 2017 to shoot three California law enforcement officers, killing Sacramento Sheriff’s Department Deputy Robert French.

Garland said the U.S. attorney general’s office will “continue to combat illegal gun trafficking” to disrupt gun violence.

“I know that this U.S. attorney’s office will not rest until every person, in every neighborhood, in every community, is safe from violent threats and safe from violent crime,” Garland said.

Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0240.