Raid on Deschutes River Woods home turns up 69 firearms, mostly undetectable ‘ghost guns’; suspect not in custody
BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- A 66-year-old Bend-area man faces numerous firearm charges after a raid on a home in Deschutes River Woods turned up 69 firearms, mostly undetectable "ghost guns" without a serial number, authorities said Thursday.
In recent days, detectives with Central Oregon Drug Enforcement (CODE) Team began investigating a report of a person manufacturing and selling ghost guns, Lt. Mike Landolt said in a news release. Detectives identified the suspect as 66-year-old Bend-area resident Eric Keith Testerman.
Around 6 p.m. Wednesday and the Central Oregon Emergency Response Team (CERT) executed a search warrant at a home in the 60000 block of Winnebago Lane in Bend, CODE Team Lt. Mike Landolt said in a news release Thursday.
During the raid, law enforcement seized 69 firearms, the majority of which did not have a serial number, Landolt said. Officers also seized manufacturing tools used to craft unserialized firearms found onsite. Many of the unserialized firearms were also short-barrel rifles and automatic firearms.
Firearms without serial numbers are commonly known as ghost guns, the lieutenant noted. They are often self-assembled or 3-D-printed, and as a result the owner can bypass background checks and make it difficult for law enforcement to investigate the guns when they’re used in a crime.
Oregon House Bill 2005 prohibits the sale, transfer, or manufacture of untraceable, unserialized and 3-D printed firearms or unfinished frames and receivers for firearms made after October 22, 1968.
"Testerman is not currently in the area, and was not present when the search warrant was executed," Landolt said, adding, that the investigation will be presented to a Deschutes County grand jury to consider several charges."
He said Testerman faces expected charges of manufacture, importation, sale or transfer of undetectable firearms, unlawful possession of machine guns, certain short-barreled firearms and firearm silences.
“This case highlights the importance of the CODE team in keeping our community safe through proactive and relentless investigation,” said CODE Team Deputy District Attorney Andrew Doyle.
Landolt said CODE would like to thank CERT, Drug Enforcement Administration, Homeland Security Investigations, Bend Police, Redmond Police, Prineville Police and the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office for their assistance in this investigation.
The Central Oregon Drug Enforcement (CODE) team is a multi-jurisdictional narcotics task force supported by the Oregon-Idaho High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) program and the following Central Oregon law enforcement agencies: Bend Police Department, Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office, Redmond Police Department, Prineville Police Department, Crook County Sheriff’s Office, Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, Madras Police Department, Oregon State Police, Sunriver Police Department, Black Butte Police Department, United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Deschutes, Crook, and Jefferson County District Attorney’s, and the Oregon National Guard.
The Oregon-Idaho HIDTA program is an Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) sponsored counterdrug grant program that coordinates and provides funding resources to multi-agency drug enforcement task forces to disrupt or dismantle local, multi-state and international drug trafficking organizations.
