Oakland – On April 13, 2020, a white Jeep Cherokee pulled over Antioch resident Kameron Booth and another person with a Honda as it exited 23rd Street on Interstate 880, then caught fire.
Seriously wounded by gunfire, Booth pulled over, stumbled on the trunk, and in desperation offered a passing motorist $10,000 for a task: he said he had $400,000 in cash to be distributed to another person. was required to do. Before he could pay, Booth collapsed. Paramedics took him to the hospital but he died of his injuries two weeks later.
Booth’s murder remains unsolved, but this month federal prosecutors in Sacramento uncovered a blaze: Just four days before the shooting, an Alameda County prosecutor received a call from a woman claiming to be a U.S. attorney , was inquiring about the booth. A few days after the shooting, the same woman called a CHP officer, claiming to be with the DEA, and disclosing information that had never been released to the public.
According to federal prosecutors, the woman was a co-leader of a mysterious criminal organization that has officially been linked to identity theft, marijuana smuggling in multiple states, and EDD fraud during the COVID-19 pandemic. But court records show that the investigation also includes unsolved violent crimes, guns hidden in secret compartments and attempts to retrieve old cars confiscated by law enforcement.
The alleged leaders of the organization are a woman named Quinton Moody, 37, and Myra Minks, 46, from Dublin. Minks, Moody’s lifelong girlfriend, is accused of repeatedly impersonating law enforcement officers, including on calls related to Booth’s murder. , The third defendant, 48-year-old Jessica Tang of Sacramento, is charged with EDD fraud, but she is best known for her role in an infamous East Bay murder from 1999.
An indictment against the three, filed on June 16, included “charges of conspiracy to distribute marijuana in California, Georgia, Nevada, Texas and elsewhere”, falsely impersonating an officer, identity theft and mail fraud. Most of the allegations are aimed at Mink and Moody, while Tang is accused of committed EDD fraud by filling out false unemployment forms in the names of others.
Moody remains in federal custody in Sacramento, while Tang has been released on $50,000 bond, court records show. Minks was arrested in Nevada on June 21 and remains in custody there, pending extradition to Sacramento, where a federal magistrate will decide whether to free him or keep him in prison while the case is pending.
Mink’s past criminal history includes other attempts at impersonation, including identity theft. In 2005, he was charged with an alleged identity theft scheme in which he and another person were allegedly buying jewelry with a victim’s credit card. Minks’ co-defendants later escaped from the Sonoma County Jail; The complaint alleges that the two had already made “discussed arrangements” to escape. He was dropped a month after the charges were filed, but Mink was later convicted and sentenced to federal prison for an unrelated fraud scheme, records show.
In 1999, then-Pinole residents Raymond Wong and Tang allegedly murdered and mutilated 21-year-old Alice Sin, dumped her body in the Nevada desert, and staged the crime scene as if it were by a racist hate group. it was done. Wong was dating both women; Police believe that the motive was related to the love triangle. In 2011, both were charged with murder. Tang pleaded guilty to adjudication and received probation and community service, while Wong was tried, convicted, and sentenced to 50 years in prison.
Meanwhile, Moody has twice been dodged with serious criminal cases. He was charged with beating his then-wife with a blunt object in Alameda County in 2014, but the charges were dropped when the alleged victim’s lawyer appeared in court and said she did not wish to prosecute. In 2010, he defeated a federal gun possession case after a judge ordered two US park officers to illegally search his car, where they found a pistol hidden in a secret compartment, court records show.
Charging documents describe Minks as a daring deceiver of law enforcement officers, alleging that he claimed to be a US attorney, a member of the Secret Service, an FBI agent, a DEA agent – also an airline employee – and That he and Moody drafted a forged one. Orders issued by law enforcement to acquire the seized vehicles. For example, in October 2020, Minks called the Colma Police Department, allegedly posing as a Secret Service agent, and asked them to release a Jeep, which was bought for four months by Gregory Bell, an associate of Moody’s. was confiscated earlier.
Federal prosecutors are also targeting Bell. He is currently facing federal gun possession charges in San Francisco and Atlanta. Court records allege that he and Moody were arrested in Roseville in June 2021 after police there attempted to pull over a car containing the two men at the direction of the FBI. Moody, the driver, reportedly ran away from police, reaching a speed of 100 mph, before both were arrested. Bell’s phone reportedly contained video of him and another man firing a gun at a Georgia gun range.
Prosecutors also allege that in 2019 Bell had a pistol—later linked to non-fatal shootings in Oakland and San Francisco—that was found in the hidden compartment of a white Jeep. During a search of his home, officers reportedly found an unregistered “assault pistol” loaded with 100 rounds as well as 40 pounds of marijuana.
Some of the alleged impersonations of Minks appear to be attempts to snoop on Federal informers. On April 27, 2020, she reportedly called a federal prosecutor in Georgia, Bay Area U.S. Attorney “Cynthia Lee” to inquire about a person known as “Associate 1” who was Moody’s. Taking the name of was cooperating with the government. A marijuana smuggler. A Georgia prosecutor reportedly confirmed the existence of an investigation involving Associate 1 and Moody’s, then discovered that there was no federal prosecutor named Cynthia Lee in the Bay Area.
Three weeks ago, when Minks reportedly called the Alameda County DA’s office, the focus of the call was the booth, according to federal officials. A DA spokeswoman declined to comment on the specifics and DA Nancy O’Malley did not return an email seeking comment.
When Booth was gunned down four days after the call, it was not his first shootout, nor the first time he had been caught with a huge amount of cash. In November 2018, Kameron Booth and his brother, Kyle Booth, were arrested for possession of a gun and marijuana after getting involved in a gun fight in San Leandro. Police searched his Hayward home and found about $2 million in cash and 180 pounds of marijuana, as well as a pound of marijuana and about $43,000 in his car.
In Atlanta, Kyle Booth was shot and killed four months before his brother. Police say Kyle Booth and another California resident, Byron Edwards, were passing through the Northeast District of Georgia’s capital when another car pulled over with them and opened fire, killing both men. Authorities have not announced any arrests in the double homicide, nor disclosed a motive beyond publicly saying that the victims were targeted.
After Kameron Booth was killed, officers discovered more than $350,000 in cash in his car. A few days later, when Minks called a CHP detective allegedly posing as a DEA agent, she knew how much cash Booth had, and that Booth and his family were marijuana smugglers, according to the complaint. Used to travel frequently between Oakland and Atlanta.
According to federal prosecutors, neither fact was disclosed to the public.
