Six Texas men, disguised as Drug Enforcement Administration agents and armed with guns, busted into a home in rural Josephine County in mid-March, tied up five people found inside and then attempted to load pounds of marijuana into their vehicles, according to court records.
The men displayed fake badges, carried radios, wore body armor and jackets with DEA and police written on them, according to prosecutors.
A federal indictment unsealed Thursday charges each of the men with conspiracy to interfere with commerce by robbery, conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute marijuana and using, carrying and brandishing a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime.
State charges were initially filed against one of the men in Josephine County. The case has now been transferred to federal court in Medford.
The accused are Nevin Cuevas Morales, 21, Michael Ray Acuna, 20, Jose Manuel Lopez, 22, Alan Jaasiel Lopez, 19, Jordan Allen Gammage, 19 and Juan Carlos Conchas, 20, all of San Antonio.
They traveled to southern Oregon from Texas in late February to commit the armed robbery, prosecutors allege. On the afternoon of March 12, local police were dispatched to a rural address in Josephine County about a possible armed robbery in progress.
Officers found a home with two vehicles running in the driveway. They were empty but their doors were open, according to court records. Then officers spotted people running toward the back of the property.
Alan Lopez was arrested that day, found hiding in a wooded area nearby, according to prosecutors.
On Oct. 6, Morales and Acuna were arrested in San Antonio, and the following week, Conchas and Jose Lopez were arrested there as well. All four first appeared on the charges in federal court in Texas and were transferred to Oregon. Authorities are still looking for Gammage.
Those arrested have entered not guilty pleas to the charges.
Investigators found plastic totes holding packaged marijuana inside the home, garage and outbuildings on the property. They found more packaged marijuana in the vehicles, as well as body armor, badges, guns, ammunition and shell casings dumped along the path where the suspects fled near the rear of the property, according to prosecutors.
Working with the Josephine County Sheriff’s Office and law enforcement in Texas, agents from the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives determined the group stayed in hotels in southern Oregon and posed with their fake DEA attire and guns for a photo in one of their hotel rooms, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
If convicted, the charges carry sentences of up to life in prison.
