Gilroy Suspect Tied To Extremist 'Boogaloo' Group: Report

GILROY, CA — A Gilroy man who authorities say has ties to a right-wing extremist group was arrested on suspicion of sending a barrage of threatening letters to Santa Clara Health Officer Dr. Sara Cody, NBC Bay Area reports.

Alan Viarengo, 55, sent 24 threatening letters to Cody over a five-month period containing language and symbols authorities say are associated with the "boogaloo" movement, the report said.

Viarengo is listed as an active faculty member at Gavilan College.

He was in possession of a massive weapons cache that included over 100 firearms, thousands of rounds of ammunition and explosives when Santa Clara County sheriff’s deputies arrested him last week, the report said.

Prosecutors have charged Viarengo with felony counts of stalking and harassing a public official according to the report. He has not yet entered a plea.

The boogaloo group has been tied to the killings of Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Sgt. Damon Gutzwiller in Ben Lomand and Federal Security Officer Dave Underwood at Oakland’s Federal Building.

The movement, which aims to instigate a civil war, has been embraced by white power and anti-government groups, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Viarengo also sent harassing letters with boogaloo symbols to Gutzwiller’s widow and the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office, acccording to the report.

According to his bio on the school’s website, Viarengo was the first in his family to receive a college degree when he graduated from Gavilan in 1985.

He transferred to San Jose State and got his master’s degree from Cal State Hayward in 1989.

Viarengo worked in research and development at Gilroy Foods for many years and began teaching math part time at Gavilan in 2001.

Viarengo, in one of the last letters he wrote before his arrest, advocates for violence against the government, according to the report.

“Enable the violent to carry out their missions by revealing the home addresses of public officials and their families,” Viarengo wrote, according to the report.

He also claims to have inspired attacks against at least five public officials in the letter according to the report.

“F--- all authority. Enjoy the Boogaloo!” his letter concludes, according to the report.

Viarengo was ordered to be taken back into custody in a court appearance Monday after he had posted bail on Friday, according to the report.

An attorney who represented Viarengo in his Friday court appearance issued a statement describing the Gilroy man as “a dedicated father, husband, community activist, respected professor, and volunteer,” who “respects the rule of law and the Constitution.”

“At this time we have allegations,” said attorney Cody Salfen, who according to the report is representing Viarengo while he seeks legal counsel.

“Allegations are not facts. Very few facts, if any, have been provided by the District Attorney's Office about the law enforcement activities in this case. But, with the little information that has been provided, at present, the only apparent attacks that have occurred are against Alan and his family.”

Viarengo was convicted of sending threatening letters to police in the early 1990s while attending an Outlaw Motorcycle Gang rally in Nevada, according to the report.

His conviction was overturned after accusations of alleged infractions against the criminalist involved in the case surfaced, the report said.

The sheriff’s office has been investigating threats against Cody, the county’s top health officer, since June.

Cody faced pushback from critics of county orders aimed at containing the spread of the coronavirus, and the rhetoric devolved into threats, according to a San Jose Mercury News report.

The Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office issued a June 23 safety bulletin alerting surrounding law enforcement agencies identified Viarengo as a possible suspect, the report said.

Viarengo was under surveillance on July 29 when Santa Clara Sheriff’s deputies saw him drop a letter inside a mailbox addressed to Cody disparaging her for her handling of the coronavirus crisis, according to the report.

He was arrested on Aug. 27 according to the report.

Read more at NBC Bay Area

— Patch Editor Courtney Teague contributed to this report.