The Find Out phase continues for the Anti-ICE protesters who wreaked havoc, damaged property, and endangered law enforcement in Downtown Los Angeles last June. In 2025, at the height of the Anti-ICE protests, five brain trusts joined together to throw rocks, debris, and lit fireworks (which are illegal in L.A. County) over the 101 Freeway overpass in Downtown L.A., while the California Highway Patrol (CHP) was holding point on the freeway below. One can only imagine the havoc this would create, not to mention the potential for injury and death.
As testimony from the prosecutor's sentencing memorandum detailed:
"This civil disorder stood apart in its magnitude,” prosecutors argued in a sentencing memorandum. “A sergeant in the California Highway Patrol with nearly three decades in law enforcement wrote a statement about how this incident stood apart and the impact it had on him and his son. His experience underscores how violent this incident became and the deep toll it took on all law enforcement present.”
On Tuesday, one miscreant's Find Out moment arrived. Ismael Vega was sentenced to three years and one month in federal prison, and ordered to pay a hefty amount in restitution.
From a Central District of California Release No. 26-125, sent via email:
A man from the Westlake neighborhood of Los Angeles has been sentenced to 37 months in federal prison for throwing rocks and ignited debris at California Highway Patrol (CHP) officers trapped underneath a downtown Los Angeles freeway overpass – with a CHP vehicle set ablaze during a violent anti-immigration law enforcement protest last year, the Justice Department announced today.
Ismael Vega, 42, was sentenced on Monday by United States District Judge John F. Walter, who also ordered him to pay $253,415 in restitution.
Vega pleaded guilty on April 29 to one count of obstructing, impeding, and interfering with law enforcement during a civil disorder.
First Assistant United States District Attorney Bill Essayli took to X to applaud the sentencing.
Ismael Vega, 42, of Westlake, was sentenced to 37 months in federal prison for violently attacking CHP officers during an anti-immigration law enforcement riot in downtown Los Angeles last year.
— F.A. United States Attorney Bill Essayli (@USAttyEssayli) July 28, 2026
On June 8, 2025, Vega threw rocks and dropped burning debris from the Main Street… pic.twitter.com/FdWvzpY5rk
Ismael Vega, 42, of Westlake, was sentenced to 37 months in federal prison for violently attacking CHP officers during an anti-immigration law enforcement riot in downtown Los Angeles last year.
On June 8, 2025, Vega threw rocks and dropped burning debris from the Main Street 101 Freeway overpass in DTLA onto a CHP vehicle as officers were trapped below, setting the vehicle ablaze and creating a substantial risk of death or serious injury.
Vega pleaded guilty on April 29 to obstructing and interfering with law enforcement and has been ordered to pay $253,415 in restitution. This incident stood out during a time of enormous violence against law enforcement.
Those who attack our brave officers protecting public safety will face federal prison time for their crimes. Let this be a warning to others who think they can act without consequences.
Read More: In Los Angeles and Portland, Anti-ICE Agitators Are Currently in the 'Find Out' Stage
Go Time: Feds Run SoCal Pre-Dawn Raid, Nab Anti-ICE Activists Who Attacked During Pot Farm Operation
As RedState reported, several arrests were made in July 2025, in connection with the raid at the Glass House Farms cannabis facility in Santa Barbara, including anti-ICE protesters who assaulted ICE agents. However, in April, a federal jury acquitted Jonathan Caravello, a professor at California State University, Channel Islands, who was charged with assault in that incident. The evidence compiled by the FBI, with a heavy lift from CHP and the Los Angeles Police Department, against Vega ensured an airtight prosecution. Vega saved taxpayers the money by pleading guilty, and his long sentence is justice being served.
According to his plea agreement, during the evening of June 8, 2025, two days after violence erupted against federal agents enforcing U.S. immigration laws, Vega was part of a large group of protesters on the Main Street overpass above U.S. Highway 101 in downtown Los Angeles. These protesters picked up debris – including cardboard and vegetation – and fireworks, lit them on fire and dropped them over the freeway overpass’s railing, aiming for a nearby CHP vehicle, which was within feet of CHP officers trapped underneath the overpass.
Vega admitted in his plea agreement that he knew the officers were under the freeway overpass and that the objects thrown and burning debris dropped onto a vehicle created a substantial risk of death or serious bodily injury to the officers.
Vega did not just throw dangerous objects and then hide his hands. The plea agreement outlined that at multiple times Vega worked to aid his fellow protesters in lighting debris around the freeway on fire, and then personally set a large piece of cardboard ablaze, and waited until a CHP vehicle was in line with the overpass before he released it onto the hood of the car. Vega's fellow brain trustee and co-defendant, Yachua Mauricio Flores, then poured accelerant onto the car in order to increase the flames.
Vega was next to co-defendant Flores and used his hands to motion towards and gesture at the flames.
Vega also picked up and threw multiple rocks at law enforcement officers as these officers attempted to clear the overpass. He further admitted that he knowingly engaged in that behavior intending that it obstruct, impede, and interfere with the law enforcement officers and their duties.
Vega's buddy Flores is scheduled to be sentenced on August 3, and faces a maximum of five years in federal prison. The lead defendant and alleged instigator, Adam Charles Palermo, is scheduled to be sentenced on December 14, where he faces a maximum of 20 years in federal prison.
These bad actors must be held as object lessons, because this type of education is sorely needed.
Editor’s Note: Democrat politicians and their radical supporters will do everything they can to interfere with and threaten ICE agents enforcing our immigration laws.
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