SAN ANTONIO — Two San Antonio men are headed to federal prison and a third will learn his sentence this summer after federal officials said they posed as DEA agents – complete with guns, body armor and badges – while trying to make off with more than 200 of pounds of marijuana in 2022.
According to the Department of Justice, Nevin Cuevas Morales, Michael Rey Acuna and Juan Carlos Conchas concocted a plan that saw them traveling to Oregon – where recreational marijuana is legal – to “commit an armed robbery while disguised as agents from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency.”
A DOJ release says the investigation began when sheriff’s deputies in Oregon responded to reports of an armed robbery on March 12, 2022, arriving at a rural home in Josephine county. Outside of that home: two empty cars with license plates from Texas.
“Deputies saw several people running toward the back of the property and found victims inside the house,” the DOJ release said. “The victims reported that armed individuals dressed in what appeared to be DEA attire and wearing body armor arrived at the property and used zip ties and duct tape to restrain several of them.”
Upon searching the area, the DOJ said, they found “large plastic totes” with marijuana, along with ammunition, firearms, shell casings, body armor and badges “that resembled those carried by DEA agents” on the path the suspects took to flee the area.
Authorities later discovered the group traveled from Texas to Oregon a month earlier to steal the marijuana.
“After arriving in Oregon, the group put on their DEA attire and posed, with firearms, for a photo in a hotel room,” the DOJ said in their release. “Investigators located and seized the incriminating photos and multiple text message conversations in which the conspirators discussed their robbery plans.”
The three of suspects, all of whom are 23 years old, were arrested in San Antonio in October 2022.
Morales pleaded guilty to conspiring to interfere with commerce by robbery and using a firearm in furtherance of a drug-trafficking crime, and received a prison sentence of 11 years and three months, as well as five years of subsequent supervised release.
Acuna pleaded guilty to conspiring to interfere with commerce by robbery and conspiring to possess marijuana with intent to distribute; he received a sentence of five years and four months in prison, followed by four years of supervised release.
Conchas will be sentenced in July after he pleaded guilty last Wednesday to conspiring to interfere with commerce by robbery and conspiring to possess marijuana with intent to distribute; he faces up to 40 years in prison. Three other unidentified co-conspirators pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing, the DOJ said.
