Mussel Quarantine Returns, 2 Plead Guilty to Murder, More News

Here is a roundup of recent incidents and announcements from Ventura County agencies:
Quarantine of mussels in effect on Sunday
VENTURA COUNTY — A quarantine for mussels collected by recreational anglers goes into effect Sunday for coastal California, including Ventura County, due to potentially dangerous levels of toxins, officials said.
The annual quarantine will be in place until at least Oct. 31, according to the Ventura County Division of Environmental Health.
Mussels used as bait may be sold in specially marked containers indicating that they are unfit for human consumption.
One of the toxins can cause paralytic shellfish poisoning, which affects the central nervous system with symptoms ranging from tingling around the mouth and fingertips to, in severe cases, complete muscle paralysis and death from asphyxiation. , officials said.
In Ventura County, residents are also advised not to eat recreationally harvested bivalve shellfish — including mussels, clams and whole scallops — due to dangerous levels of domamic acid found in the mussels. sampled in the region. Symptoms of domic acid poisoning range from vomiting, diarrhea and headaches to, in severe cases, seizures, permanent loss of short-term memory, coma and death, said officials.
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Toxins have no known antidote and cooking cannot reliably destroy them. Victims should see a doctor to manage the symptoms.
The quarantine applies to the entire California coast, including bays, ports and estuaries.
The California Department of Public Health operates a shellfish information hotline at 800-553-4133. More information is available at cdph.ca.gov.
2 plead guilty to murder
VENTURA — Two Ventura men have pleaded guilty to murder for the 2017 stabbing on Christmas Eve in a Ventura parking lot.
The defendants were minors at the time. The Ventura County District Attorney’s Office filed a successful motion to transfer the case to adult court.
Jose Manuel Acevedo and Andy Diaz, both 21, pleaded guilty Wednesday in Ventura County Superior Court to second-degree murder. Both admitted to using a knife and that the murder was carried out for the benefit of a criminal street gang, prosecutors said. They were 16 and 17 years old when they were arrested.
A third man, Chris Gallegos, 24, has pleaded not guilty to a murder charge. His trial is ongoing and he remains in Todd Road Jail on bail set at $1.16 million, according to jail records.
The victim, Joseph Cruz, 30, of Ventura, was stabbed at approximately 9:50 p.m. on Dec. 25, 2017, in the parking lot at the 500 block of East Harbor Boulevard near the Ventura Pier.
CCTV showed the three attackers assaulted Cruz, who was stabbed 14 times and died the next day. The targeted attack was gang-related, authorities said.
The case was investigated by the Ventura Police Department.
Acevedo and Diaz will be sentenced to 15 years to life on June 30 in Courtroom 12. Both remain in county jails and cannot be released.
Thousands of doses of opioids seized
THOUSAND OAKS — Ventura County Sheriff’s Detectives investigating the local operations of an alleged Mexico-based drug trafficking organization arrested an alleged vendor in a Newbury Park parking lot this month.
Prior to the arrest, authorities determined that the group allegedly distributed bulk and user quantities of the powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl as well as heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine and counterfeit pills containing fentanyl. The organization’s activity in Ventura County is primarily in the Simi Valley, Moorpark and Thousand Oaks, officials said.
On April 20, narcotics detectives arrested a 32-year-old Los Angeles County man in a public parking lot on the 1000 block of Academy Drive, believing he was actively delivering drugs.
During a probable cause search for the suspect and his vehicle, authorities reportedly seized over a pound of methamphetamine, over 6 ounces of fentanyl, 2 ounces of black tar heroin, 600 counterfeit oxycodone pills allegedly mixed with fentanyl, 3 ounces of cocaine and a large amount of cash.
Sheriff officials said the opioids seized totaled more than 320 grams, the equivalent of about 8,300 doses. Fentanyl can be deadly in amounts as small as 0.25 milligrams, officials said, meaning the amount seized could result in several thousand fatal overdoses.
The suspect was released from jail without charges being filed on Saturday.