Ricardo Pacheco, a former Baldwin Park city councilmember has pleaded guilty to accepting thousands of dollars in bribes – including $20,000 in cash – from a Baldwin Park Police officer working at the FBI's direction, in exchange for the councilmember's political support of the Baldwin Park Police Association's contract with the city. Pacheco admitted he solicited and got $37,900 in bribes from a Baldwin Park police officer from January  through October 2018 to support and vote for the Police Association's contract worth about $4.4 million over three years. The FBI directed the police officer to made the payments because he and another officer approached the FBI and agreed to assist in its ongoing corruption investigation. In exchange for the payments, Pacheco voted in favor of the Police Association contract in March 2018.

The payments to Pacheco included a $20,000 cash bribe in October 2018, which the police officer provided to him in an envelope in a Baldwin Park coffee shop.  Pacheco also solicited and received $17,900 in checks that he directed be made out to his church and sham political action committees he had set up using other individuals' names but which he controlled. As part of his plea agreement, Pacheco resigned from his City Council seat and forfeit $83,145 in cash proceeds, including $62,900 that Pacheco buried in his backyard.