By rssfeeds-admin According to the DOJ, 37-year-old Rey Medeles was arrested on two counts of grand theft and two counts of preparing false documentary evidence. The investigation that led to this arrest began more than a year ago. Due to the severity of the alleged crimes, Fresno PD didn’t hesitate to get federal agents involved.
“We internally discovered that $60,000 had been taken from our evidence room by a detective, former detective was at the time Detective Rey Medeles,” Fresno Police Chief Mindy Casto said.
Fresno Police, along with the FBI and DOJ, sniffed out a suspected thief. Medeles was arrested for stealing $60,000 in total from the department’s evidence room.
“He was hired back in 2015. So he is somewhat of a veteran, and he was working out in our narcotics unit when the theft occurred,” Chief Casto said.
But how did he do it? According to the DOJ, $30,000 was seized during two search warrants in 2023 and 2024. The money was booked into evidence, and both times, no charges were filed. But, on both occasions, Medeles reportedly signed the cash out of the evidence, then held onto it after falsifying records and keeping the money.
“The administrative investigation, which was completed in June of 2025 and resulted in Detective Medeles’ termination. The year-long investigation did not indicate that there was evidence of any other more widespread theft or that any other department members had been involved,” Chief Casto said.
“No one’s above the law, and least of all one of our officers. We have over 1,300 department members here working every day to keep this community safe. And they don’t want somebody wearing the same badge and the same patch that’s committing these kinds of crimes,” Chief Casto said.
Medeles was also named as part of a group of Fresno Police officers being sued by three local business owners for alleged improprieties between 2021 and 2023.
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