Bend raids bring one arrest, marijuana, gun seizures

After a year-long investigation, three simultaneous drug raids in Bend on Wednesday morning, a fourth later at a storage unit and other raids out of state led to a Bend man’s arrest on a federal drug conspiracy charge and the seizure in Bend of more than 120 marijuana plants, six guns, cash and three cars, officials said Thursday.

Central Oregon Drug Enforcement Team detectives executed three search warrants around 7:15 a.m. at two homes in the Bend area – 60466 Umatilla Circle and 1125 NW Cumberland Avenue – and at a business, Greenleaf Garden Center, at 610 SE Ninth St., said CODE Team Lt. Ken Mannix.

Warrants also were executed in another, as-yet unnamed state, the result of a long-term investigation by the CODE Team and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration into the illegal trafficking of large quantities of marijuana, Mannix said.

The investigation over the past year had found that Bend resident Anthony Wade Osborne, 33, of Bend, was illegally growing and distributing large quantities of marijuana to people in another state, he said.

Detectives were able to identify locations, cars and other items used in Osborne’s operation, which included locations outside of Oregon, Mannix said.

More information led to another raid at a storage unit in Bend and three more search warrants being executed on outdoor marijuana grows and properties in another state, leading to the seizure of a large quantity of marijuana plants, he said.

In the Bend raids, authorities found and seized 121 marijuana plants, six firearms, cash, three vehicles and other evidence of marijuana sales and distribution, Mannix said.

Due to the scale of the operation, more police resources were brought in to help in the raids, including activation of the Central Oregon Emergency Response Team at the Umatilla Circle address.

Also involved, along with the DEA, were detectives with Bend police, the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office and Oregon State Police, as well as Bend police officers and sheriff’s deputies, Mannix said.

Osborne was contacted at his home and taken into federal custody on charges of conspiracy to distribute marijuana. Federal marshals brought him to Eugene, where he was held without bail at the Lane County jail on a federal offense hold.

Deschutes County Jail records show Osborne was arrested April 23 on charges of strangulation and fourth-degree assault. He posted $500 bail and was released later that day.

Mannix said the joint local-DEA investigation is “active and ongoing,” so more details are not being released.