Oakland political operative attacked twice in recent months, including at address raided by FBI last week

OAKLAND — A longtime Oakland political operative was attacked in two separate incidents in May and June, including once at an address that was raided last week by the FBI as part of a sprawling probe that has ensnared Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao.

Mario Juarez was met with gunfire on June 9 at his house on the 1800 block of Fruitvale Avenue, authorities said. A person who reported the shooting to police said she heard four shots and saw a man armed with a gun who fled after the attack, according to dispatch recordings.

Juarez, 47, escaped injury in the shooting, which remains under investigation. No arrests have been announced.

The attack came roughly a month after he was assaulted at 1211 Embarcadero, the address where FBI and IRS agents raided the offices of California Waste Solutions on June 20, his attorney Ernie Castillo, confirmed Friday. He described Juarez’s injuries in the incident as “serious,” but did not have further information about his current condition.

“These were definitely attempts to murder Mario,” Castillo said in an interview. He declined to speculate on the motive for the attacks, which were first reported by the San Francisco Chronicle.

Juarez is a longtime a political operative and two-time Oakland council candidate whose recent campaign dealings have drawn the attention of Alameda County prosecutors and the state’s political watchdog.

In January, Alameda County prosecutors charged Juarez in a felony fraud case that stemmed from election mailers Juarez allegedly orchestrated against Thao’s chief political rival — mayoral opponent Loren Taylor — during the final 10 days of the 2022 mayoral campaign. His attack ads also targeted mayoral candidate Ignacio De La Fuente and former Mayor Libby Schaaf.

Prosecutors say Juarez commissioned the flyers from an Oakland direct mailing company by writing nearly $53,600 in checks that bounced, because he had less than $215 in this bank account at the time, court records show. He has since pleaded not guilty.

The Fair Political Practices Commission has an open investigation into the mailers after Juarez ignored warnings that he had not filed disclosure forms stating where his money came from, as required by state law.

The impact of those bounced checks was immediate and devastating, said Samari Johnson, the owner of the company, Butterfly Direct Marketing. The postal service severed its business relationship with Johnson’s company, dealing a blow that nearly forced the family-run business to close its doors, he said.

It all amounted to a “cruel injustice,” Johnson said, especially given how Juarez hounded the company for updates to ensure the estimated 120,000 flyers went out ahead of the election. Over and over, Johnson said, Juarez stressed “how important that was to go out, because it was going to have an effect on the mayor’s race,” and because “it was important for Sheng Thao to win, and to make changes to better Oakland.”

“It’s been very, very stressful,” Johnson told this newspaper. “We never had these issues, being in business for 41 years.”

Juarez could not be reached for comment, but his attorney, Castillo, called his client innocent and framed the charges as “politically motivated and unfortunate.”

“If we need to fight the case we will do everything to prove his innocence, including exposing the nasty state of politics in Oakland that are driving the charges against him,” Castillo said.

At various points over the last few decades, Juarez either started or operated companies focused on debt collection, entertainment, clean energy and real estate – many of which are no longer in business.

At the same time, county records show regulators filed at least $96,000 worth of state and federal tax liens against him since 2015. At least three of the state liens remained outstanding earlier this week, while the status of a $79,000 federal lien remains unclear. He also was forced to surrender his real estate license in 2015 amid allegations of wrongful business dealings.

Also targeted in the raids were the home of Thao and houses connected to Andy Duong and David Duong, who own and operate the Oakland-based company California Waste Solutions, the city’s curbside recycling provider. CWS also has a contract with the city of San Jose.

The exact documents and belongings targeted in the raids remain unclear, and the FBI has not identified the targets of the investigation.

Thao has since proclaimed her innocence, saying flatly that “I have done nothing wrong” in remarks earlier this week that questioned the motives of the authorities who conducted the searches.