Full Notification

This is a follow-up press release regarding the arrests and seizure of forearms of an incident that occurred on 4/13/2013 in the 23500 block of Millerick Road, Sonoma Valley.

In that incident, two criminal street gang members were found in possession of five stolen guns by a deputy patrol the area of Millerick Road. One of the stolen guns was loaded under the front seat of the vehicle.

The resulting investigation by Sheriff’s deputies from the Sonoma Valley sub-station and Multi-Agency Gang Enforcement Team (MAGNET) led to the arrest of four suspects, including a 26 year old gang member from Sonoma. During the service of a search warrant at the gang member's residence, he was found to have a loaded semi-automatic handgun hidden and attached with Velcro to the bottom of a chair in his bedroom. The handgun came back registered to an individual out of Paradise, California.

The Sheriff's Sonoma County Multi-Agency Gang Enforcement Team (MAGNET) was tasked with leading this investigation which revealed that the gun owner was now a resident of The City of Sonoma. When contacted the owner stated he lost the gun while shooting it on Millerick Road and never reported it to law enforcement.

Investigators learned the owner of the gun worked with the suspects at a local Sonoma business and had called the owner of the gun several times by telephone on 4/13/2013; the date of the original incident. The gun owner knew the suspect was a convicted felon, could not own a firearm and knew he was a member of a Criminal Street Gang, but sold him the firearm anyway. The registered gun owner was identified as Dilip Kumar Sinha (51 years old of Sonoma) and was arrested on 4/19/2013 at the conclusion of MAGNET's investigation.

Dilip Kumar Sinha (51 years old of Sonoma) was booked at Sonoma County Jail, charged with Knowingly Selling a Firearm to a Convicted Felon (felony) and Knowingly Selling a Firearm to a Criminal Street Gang Member (misdemeanor), His bail has been set at $10,000.00.
Anyone with information regarding these investigations is encouraged to call Deputy Dylan Fong at (707) 565-2650.

Prepared by:
Sgt. Dave Pedersen
Sonoma County Sheriff's Office
Multi-Agency Gang Enforcement Team
Re: CR 130413-005