Democratic House candidate Will Rollins claims he fought drug lords, ISIS and MS-13. Is that true?

Democrat Will Rollins has made his criminal record a central focus in his rematch against Rep. Ken Calvert (R., Calif.). The Palm Springs lawyer repeatedly boasted of taking on ISIS, the Sinaloa cartel and MS-13 while serving as an assistant district attorney in the Central District of California.

“Rollins, a counterterrorism prosecutor, took on ISIS terrorists and went after the Sinaloa Cartel to stop illegal drugs from crossing our border,” said a February ad, which made racy allegations about Calvert and called him “one of the most corrupt members of Congress.”

The commercial ended with Rollins saying, “I’m Will Rollins and I agree with this message because I’ve spent my entire career fighting for the safety of our families.”

But there’s no evidence that Rollins played any role in the fight against the Sinaloa Cartel or ISIS. His only documented involvement in the fight against MS-13? He helped negotiate a lenient plea deal for a meth dealer who was once on a list of the gang’s “members and associates.”

Indeed, an exhaustive Washington Free Beacon review found no documentation indicating that Rollins participated in the prosecution of anyone with ties to ISIS or the Sinaloas during his five-year stint as an assistant district attorney in Los Angeles. Rollins also claims to have gone after “killers,” but the Free beacon Only one murder case has been linked to the junior prosecutor, a case that was not solved until two years after Rollins left his job.

In early August the Free beacon began asking the Rollins campaign for information about the candidate’s record during his 2016-2021 term in the Central District, which covers Los Angeles and its surrounding suburbs. The Rollins campaign did not respond to any of the Free beacon‘s investigations. Rollins’ extensive public statements—on his campaign website, social media and press interviews—do not cite specific cases or link to press releases from the Justice Department or the FBI.

The Free beacon reviewed every federal lawsuit in which Rollins was named, and searched through reams of documents. The review also included extensive searches of the Central District’s website.

The Mexico-based Sinaloa cartel, which controls much of the drug trade, along with the sadistically violent Salvadoran immigrant gang MS-13 and the Islamic terrorist group ISIS, are three of the world’s most feared criminal organizations, and many ambitious young prosecutors would jump at the chance to take them on. But since Rollins’ name doesn’t appear in any public government documents related to Sinaloa or ISIS, it’s highly unlikely he played a significant role in such cases, according to a former assistant U.S. attorney who asked not to be named. It’s possible he was involved in less significant ways that kept his name off the case, such as writing search warrants and requesting digital surveillance, or overseeing cases that others were actually prosecuting.

Furthermore, the law firm where Rollins currently works makes no mention of ISIS, the Sinaloa Cartel, or MS-13 on his biography page. Instead, Raines Feldman Littrell, a Los Angeles law firm that is tasked with accurately representing its lawyers to their clients, simply says that Rollins prosecuted “a broad range of U.S. counterterrorism, export control, and national security laws” as an assistant U.S. attorney.

The Free beacon found a case in which Rollins prosecuted an MS-13 member for dealing meth — and struck a sweetheart plea deal. In that 2012 case, Juan Carlos Garcia was caught dealing 80 grams of meth to his children. He faced two distribution charges, one carrying a maximum sentence of 40 years in prison, the other life in prison. Rollins dropped one charge and helped Garcia get the mandatory minimum sentence of five years in prison on the other.

A 2013 FBI press release lists Garcia among “members and associates of the MS-13 street gang.” Garcia’s indictment, however, makes no mention of gang affiliation, nor does his plea agreement. His sentence stated only that he was prohibited from associating with known members or wearing anything associated with MS-13.

Rollins’ attempts to use his time in office to bolster his campaign have become a point of contention in his campaign. A county GOP chairman challenged Rollins’ bid to describe himself as an “anti-terrorism attorney” on the primary ballot, and a judge ruled that he must describe himself as an “anti-terrorism attorney” instead.

During the campaign, Rollins exaggerated his criminal record. In August, he posted on X that he had “taken on … January 6th insurrectionists.” He had previously claimed on the third anniversary of the Capitol riots that he “helped prosecute Southern California residents who participated in the January 6th attack.”

In reality the Free beacon Reportedly, Rollins was involved in a single case on January 6, that of beautician Gina Bisignano, the so-called “Beverly Hills insurrectionist.” Bisignano became the object of worldwide ridicule after she shouted, “You’re not going to take our Trumpy Bear!” into a megaphone outside the Capitol while wearing a Louis Vuitton sweater and Chanel boots. Her case remains pending, long after Rollins left government service.

Rollins has also said in campaign ads that he supports members of a gang called the Mexican MafiaThe U.S.-based prison and street gang organizes other Spanish-speaking gangs to create a larger network of illegal activities.

The Free beacon‘s review found Rollins involved in two cases that were tangentially tied to the Mexican Mafia. In both cases, Rollins signed lenient plea agreements that gave the gang members light prison sentences for serious crimes.

Julio Cesar Alvarado was sentenced to a maximum of 10 years in prison in June 2016 for a firearms charge. He admitted to being a member of the Eastside Santa Ana gang, an affiliate of the Mexican Mafia. Rollins negotiated a plea deal and Alvarado was sentenced to just two years in prison.

Justin Robert Burkett, a known member of the Westside VLP gang, another Mexican mafia branchwas caught with four ounces of meth and a stolen .38 caliber revolver. He was given a life sentence for the drug trafficking and an additional five years for the weapons offense. But Rollins dropped the firearms charge and helped Burkett get a 10-year sentence, the mandatory minimum for the distribution count. Burkett was also required to enter a substance abuse program when he got out of prison.

Rollins also claims he has helped put murderers in prison. Indeed, he helped prosecute Stephen William Beal, a Long Beach man accused of send a parcel bomb to his ex-girlfriend’s day spa, killing her and seriously injuring two others. The sensational case was profiled on “Dateline NBC.”

Last January, Beal was sentenced to life in prison, in addition to 30 years in federal prison. But Rollins was long gone from the U.S. attorney’s office, having left in September 2021 to first challenge Calvert. That’s roughly two years before Beal was even found guilty, let alone sentenced.

Rollins narrowly lost to Calvert in 2022 – he was considered one of the country’s best ‘overperformers’ – and their rematch is expected to be exciting, Politics reports. This time around, the swing district may be more favorable to Rollins. Recent redistricting has swapped heavily Republican areas in California’s Inland Empire for parts of the Coachella Valley, including predominantly liberal Palm Springs, which may have the highest per capita gay population in the country.