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58 arrests at Burning Man, an increase over 2018

COURTESY MAXAR TECHNOLOGIES

A view over the Burning Man Festival in Gerlach, Nev., on Aug. 25. Authorities arrested at least 58 people at this year’s Burning Man festival in the northern Nevada desert, 14 more than last year. One death was reported this year, a man who apparently died in his car from carbon monoxide poisoning.

RENO, Nev. >> Authorities arrested at least 58 people at this year’s Burning Man festival in the northern Nevada desert, 14 more than last year.

One death was reported this year— a man who apparently died in his car from carbon monoxide poisoning.

Most of the arrests were primarily for drug possession, the Reno Gazette Journal reported .

The most serious charge was a felony sexual assault filed during the pre-event activities for the counter-culture gathering that wrapped up on Monday after attracting more than 70,000 people about 100 miles north of Reno.

As many as 30,000 participants were expected to fly Monday and Tuesday out of Reno-Tahoe International Airport, where special trash cans were placed along the curb to help speed departures, airport spokesman Brian Kulpin said.

“We kind of call them amnesty boxes,” he told KRNV-TV. “Throw away anything you don’t want to get caught in security with and before you enter the airport.”

One person was seriously injured and two suffered minor injuries in a small plane crash in Reno after the aircraft left the festival last week.

Fifty-seven people were arrested in 2017. Stepped-up law enforcement pushed the number of arrests from six in 2013 and seven in 2014 to 41 in 2015.

Bail amounts for those arrested this year ranged from $640 for possession of drug paraphernalia to $500,000 for trafficking more than 28 grams of a controlled substance, the Gazette-Journal reported.

Thirty-two of the people arrested were from California, according to Pershing County sheriff’s office records. Six were from Nevada, and five were from outside the United States — Israel, Australia, Switzerland, Egypt and Lithuania.

The 36-year-old man arrested Aug. 22 for sexual assault and false imprisonment was the only person taken into custody listed as a transient. Oleg Gennadievich Ivanov’s bail was set at $150,000. It’s not clear if he has a lawyer.

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