Two San Antonio, Texas, men were sentenced to federal prison and another San Antonio man pleaded guilty for conspiring to travel from Texas to Southern Oregon to commit an armed robbery while disguised as US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents.
According to the US Attorney's Office for the District of Oregon, 23-year-old Nevin Cuevas Morales was sentenced to 135 months in federal prison and five years of supervised release and 23-year-old Michael Rey Acuna was sentenced to 64 months in prison and four years of supervised release.
Meanwhile, 32-year-old Juan Carlos Conchas pleaded guilty to Conspiring to Interfere with Commerce by Robbery and Conspiring to Possess Marijuana with Intent to Distribute. He faces a maximum sentence of 40 years in prison, a $5 million fine and four years of supervised release. He'll be sentenced on July 17th.
On March 12, 2022, the Josephine County Sheriff's Office responded to a rural address after receiving reports of a robbery in progress. Deputies found a residence with a closed driveway gate and two empty vehicles with Texas license plates in the driveway with their doors open. They saw several people running toward the back of the property and found victims inside the house.
The victims reported that armed individuals dressed in what appeared to be DEA attire and wearing body armor arrived on the property and used zip ties and duct tape to restrain several of them. Deputies searched the property and found large plastic totes containing marijuana in the buildings and vehicles. They also found body armor, firearms, ammunition, shell casings and phony DEA badges.
Investigators learned the group traveled from San Antonio to Josephine County to steal 200 pounds of marijuana and recovered photographs taken by the group in which they posed with firearms dressed as DEA agents. All three suspects were located and arrested in San Antonio in October 2022.
