DES MOINES, IA – Officials with the U-S Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa report that on Thursday, March 30, 2023, federal search warrants were executed at seven  locations in Des Moines:

• 2500 block of Maury Street,
• 2500 block of East 23rd Street,
• 3600 block of Amherst Street,
• 1500 block of King Avenue,
• 3400 block of Southwest 8th Street,
• 4100 block of 11th Place, and
• 1600 block of Washington Avenue.

The searches at those locations were an official law enforcement action involving officers, agents, and investigators from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Mid-Iowa Narcotics Enforcement Task Force (MINE), United States Marshals Service, Des Moines Police Department, Iowa Division of Narcotics Enforcement (DNE), Iowa State Patrol (ISP), Suburban Emergency Response Team (SERT), and Metro Special Tactics and Response (STAR).

Additional details/information was not released.

Des Moines, Iowa – Officials with the Iowa Insurance Division report a Des Moines man, 25-year-old Alexander Cajuste-Tate, recently pled guilty to one count of Insurance Fraud (Class D Felony) following an investigation by the Iowa Insurance Division’s Fraud Bureau.

The investigation began in October of 2022 after the Iowa Insurance Division’s Fraud Bureau received information indicating Cajuste-Tate had presented to an insurer a written document in support of payment knowing such document contained false information. Cajuste-Tate was arrested on January 1, 2023 and pled guilty to one count of Insurance Fraud on March 23, 2023.

Photo courtesy of the Polk County Sheriff’s Office.

Following his guilty plea, Cajuste-Tate was placed on supervised probation for two years. Cajuste-Tate was also ordered to pay a civil penalty of $1,025. Iowans with information about insurance fraud are encouraged to contact the Iowa Insurance Division’s Fraud Bureau at 515-654-6556.

Davenport, IA – A Salem, Iowa, man was sentenced Wednesday to 100 months in prison for possession of child pornography. According to court records, law enforcement began investigating 39-year-old Jason Robert Wesely, a former member of the Iowa National Guard, after receiving a cybertip from a social media platform in May 2020. The tip included descriptions of Wesely’s sexual conversations with an undercover agent, pretending to be a 14-year-old child. Further investigation revealed that Wesely belonged to a chat group where child pornography was shared among its members.

Wesely admitted to belonging to the group and to viewing and sharing child pornography. Wesely was ultimately discharged from the Iowa National Guard.

Following his prison term, Wesely was ordered to serve eight years of supervised release. There is no parole in the federal system. Homeland Security Investigations and the Iowa State Patrol investigated the case. The case was prosecuted by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa.

DAVENPORT, IA – A Clinton man was sentenced Tuesday to 27 years in federal prison for production of child pornography and being a prohibited person in possession of a firearm.
According to court documents and evidence presented at sentencing, 49-year-old Timothy Craig Geerts sexually abused a child and recorded the abuse. Geerts also surreptitiously recorded that child, and two other children, naked, in the bathroom. As a part of the investigation, officers also located videos of Geerts sexually assaulting an incapacitated adult, who he admitted to drugging. Geerts was previously convicted in state court of sexually assaulting one of the child victims.

Geerts also possessed three firearms. He was prohibited from possessing firearms because he was a drug user.

After completing his term of imprisonment, Geerts will be required to serve five years of supervised release. He will also be required to register as a sex offender. Hi case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Clinton Police Department. The case was prosecuted by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa.

DAVENPORT, IA – An Iowa City man was sentenced recently to 204 months in prison for receiving child pornography. Law enforcement identified 31-year-old Jesus Rafael Diaz-Figueroa after the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) received a cybertip from KIK that videos depicting child pornography were uploaded using IP addresses found to be associated with Diaz-Figueroa. Law enforcement executed a search warrant at Diaz-Figueroa’s residence and seized multiple electronic devices, which contained more than 3,300 images and videos depicting child pornography. Diaz-Figueroa admitted he had been viewing child pornography since high school.

Following his term of imprisonment, Diaz-Figueroa was ordered to serve 10 years of supervised release. There is no parole in the federal system. He was also ordered to pay $48,000 in restitution.

This case was prosecuted by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa as part of the U.S. Department of Justice’s “Project Safe Childhood” initiative, which was started in 2006 as a nationwide effort to combine law enforcement investigations and prosecutions, community action, and public awareness in order to reduce the incidence of sexual exploitation of children. For more information about Internet safety education, please visit https://www.justice.gov/psc and click on the resources tab.

Des Moines, IA – An Iowa City man was sentenced Wednesday to two years in prison, for tampering with his dental practice’s fentanyl supply by removing the medication from vials for his own personal use. The U-S Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa says 55-year-old Dr. Andrew Charles Hartwig previously worked as an oral surgeon in Iowa City and Mt. Pleasant.

According to court documents, Hartwig diverted fentanyl from his previous employer, Oral Surgery Associates of Iowa City, also known as Oral Surgery and Dental Implant Center of Iowa City, beginning at least as early as April 2019 and until at least July 10, 2019. Hartwig admitted that his actions resulted in the dilution and contamination of the fentanyl supply. Hartwig admitted he acted with reckless disregard that dental patients would be placed in danger of death and bodily injury and manifested extreme indifference to such risk. In October 2022, Hartwig pleaded guilty to one count of tampering with consumer products, in violation of the United States Code.

The Court imposed a term of supervised release of two years, a fine of $50,000, and a $100 special assessment.

“Patients rely on receiving the proper FDA-approved medications from those entrusted with their medical care,” said Acting Special Agent in Charge Brian G. McClune, Food and Drug Administration, Office of Criminal Investigations, Kansas City Field Office. “We must hold medical personnel accountable when they take advantage of their unique position and tamper with medications their patients need.”

The Food and Drug Administration, Office of Criminal Investigations, and the Drug Enforcement Administration investigated the case.

(Creston, Iowa) – Police in Creston, Thursday, arrested a man for Driving While Barred. 45-year-old Corey Matthew Brown, of Creston, was taken into custody in the 600 block of S. Park Street. He was cited and then released from the scene, on a Promise to Appear in court.

(Radio Iowa) – Researchers at Iowa State University say the recent discovery of a saber-tooth skull in southwest Iowa’s Page County is the first evidence the prehistoric predator once roamed the land we now call home. I-S-U archaeology professor Matthew Hill says the exceptionally rare find is in “exquisite” condition, especially since it’s more than 13-thousand years old.

Sabertooth skull. (ISU photo)

The young male cat would have weighed about 550 pounds, compared to the modern adult male African lion, which only weighs about 400 pounds. It would’ve been a very large and lethal animal that was built for both speed and stealth. Radiocarbon dating shows the cat died at the end of the Ice Age.

Mathew Hill. (ISU photo)

Hill, an expert on animal bones, says this creature may have been one of the last sabertooths to walk the earth as the glaciers receded and temperatures warmed.

(Red Oak, Iowa) – Police in Red Oak report a man from Hastings was arrested Thursday afternoon, following a traffic stop in the 2000 block of N. 4th Street. Authorities say 40-year-old Curtis Richard Frazee was taken into custody for OWI/2nd offense. His bond was set at $2,000.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa’s top Republicans are denouncing the indictment of former President Donald Trump. Governor Kim Reynolds says it’s a sham. Governor Reynolds says Trump’s indictment is an assault on democracy, using government power to go after a political opponent. Reynolds says it isn’t normal, it isn’t justice and it’s not what America stands for.

Senator Chuck Grassley says the case against Trump is weak and the indictment is an alarming example of the politicization of the state and federal justice system.

Senator Joni Ernst says the district attorney who’s prosecuting the case has been fixated on going after the former president while crime in New York City runs rampant.

Congresswoman Ashley Hinson of Marion says the indictment is politically motivated, wrong and dangerous. The other three Iowa Republicans serving in the U.S. House have not issued statements about the case.

Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird tweeted last (Thursday) night that politics don’t belong in prosecutions, but she did not directly mention Trump’s indictment.