By Steve Neavling
Six Texas men were charged with masquerading as DEA agents and busting into a home in rural Oregon to steal pounds of marijuana, the Justice Department announced Thursday.
The armed men were wearing body armor and DEA attire, carried radios, and had fake DEA badges when they broke into the house in Josephine County in the afternoon of March 12.
An indictment unsealed in federal court Thursday charges the six men with conspiring to travel from Texas to southern Oregon to commit an armed robbery.
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, have been charged 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.
Local police were dispatched to the house after receiving reports of a possible armed robbery in progress. When the officers arrived, the found two empty vehicles running in the driveway with all their doors open.
The men fled, leaving behind a trail of packaged marijuana, body armor, badges, firearms, ammunition and shell casings.
They were eventually arrested.
The case was investigated by the FBI and ATF with help from the Josephine County Sheriff’s Office and the Texas Department of Public Safety.
