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L.A. Charges Burbank Company With Illegal Dumping

The owner of a Burbank plumbing business was among three people charged by the Los Angeles City Attorney for allegedly illegally dumping materials in Sun Valley. Mike Varela, 36, his company Mighty Mike Plumbing Inc., and two employees, Antonio Vasquez, 27, and Jesus Maldonado, 29, were each charged with two counts of illegal dumping, according to a statement from the city attorney’s office. In November, surveillance cameras in the area of 9128 Tujunga Ave. captured Vasquez and Maldonado allegedly using shovels to dump large amounts of dirt and asphalt out of a truck with a Mighty Mike Plumbing logo on the side, according to the city attorney’s office. An investigation by the Los Angeles Police Department matched video stills from the cameras of the two men with prior booking photos, the office said. The area where the pair had allegedly dumped the dirt and asphalt has been identified by the city attorney’s office as one of the top 10 chronic locations for illegal dumping in the city. “Illegal dumping corrodes a community and must be stopped,” City Attorney Mike Feuer said in a prepared statement. “This case is an example of our Illegal Dumping Task Force bringing our neighborhood prosecutors together with city agencies to effectively target locations that have become dumping grounds.” Varela, Vasquez and Maldonado are scheduled to be arraigned on Thursday in San Fernando court. If convicted, each could face up to six months in jail and $1,000 in fines.

Mark Madler
Mark Madler
Mark R. Madler covers aviation & aerospace, manufacturing, technology, automotive & transportation, media & entertainment and the Antelope Valley. He joined the company in February 2006. Madler previously worked as a reporter for the Burbank Leader. Before that, he was a reporter for the City News Bureau of Chicago and several daily newspapers in the suburban Chicago area. He has a bachelor’s of science degree in journalism from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

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