On June 20, the FBI raided the home of Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, carting away boxes of material. The purpose of the raid wasn’t clear, but it may have had something to do with Oakland’s recycler, California Waste Solutions, whose offices were also searched, along with the homes of CWS owners David and Andy Duong.

On June 24, Mayor Thao proclaimed her innocence and blamed the raid on “right-wing forces.” In a city home to the Black Panther Museum, and with UC Berkeley close at hand, that claim had locals wondering whom Oakland’s Democrat mayor had in mind. The raid on the mayor’s home wasn’t the FBI’s first Bay Area bust, and the state has been a target-rich environment for decades.

For example, in 2020, the FBI arrested San Francisco Department of Public Works boss Mohammed Nuru for public corruption and a long-running scheme involving multiple bribes and kickbacks. Many locals thought the arrest came years too........

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