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Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives

News Release

For Immediate Release

Thursday, December 15, 2016
Contact: Lt. Ken Mannix, Bend PD

3 Arrested and Plead Guilty for Roles in Firearms-Trafficking Ring

BEND, Ore. – Three plead guilty to charges related to a firearms trafficking ring taken down by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) Seattle Field Division. The investigation concluded guns were being bought in Central Oregon and sold to gangs in California in exchange for money and drugs.

ATF working with the Central Oregon Drug Enforcement Team (CODE) and the Amtrak Police Department, with the assistance of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway Police Department, the Lodi (CA) Police Department, Deschutes County District Attorney’s Office and the Sacramento (CA) Sheriff’s Department, investigated a firearms and narcotics trafficking ring that started in 2014 and ran through August 2016 in the Bend, Oregon area.     

Jacob Quesada, 24, employed straw purchasers Cynthia Job, 22, and Dennis Job, 64, all Bend, Oregon residents, to purchase guns from retail stores and private parties around the Central Oregon area. Soon after the firearms were purchased, Quesada would travel to Lodi and Stockton, Calif. areas via passenger trains, and sell them to alleged gang members in the Central California area. Investigators believed Quesada would receive cash for the firearms or would trade them for commercial amounts of methamphetamine, which was later distributed throughout the Central Oregon region. 

There were more than 50 firearms purchased by the ring members from 2014 to 2016. Of those 10 were later recovered by law enforcement in violent crimes in California.  Following the arrest of Quesada in Deschutes County, Oregon, investigators from ATF and CODE executed two search warrants at Quesada and Cynthia Job’s residence, which is located in the Deschutes River Woods subdivision south of Bend, Oregon and within 1,000 feet of an elementary school.  A second search warrant was simultaneously executed at Dennis Job’s Deschutes River Woods home. During the execution of the search warrants detectives located and seized a commercial quantity of methamphetamine, as well as other evidence of the illegal possession, distribution, and manufacturing of methamphetamine and the illegal distribution of firearms.

During their arrest, ATF special agents and CODE detectives attempted to stop Quesada and Cynthia Job during a traffic stop. Quesada refused to immediately stop and led law enforcement on a short vehicle pursuit with their two children in the vehicle. Ultimately, Quesada stopped his vehicle and both he and Cynthia Job were taken into custody. The endangered children were later released to Oregon DHS Child Welfare.

“Straw purchasers will continue to be investigated and prosecuted for violating the law,” said ATF Seattle Special Agent in Charge Doug Dawson. “Straw purchasers and firearms traffickers are responsible for the crimes committed with those guns.  As a society we have to make straw purchasing as socially reprehensible as the crimes committed with those guns.”

 “The Central Oregon Drug Enforcement Team is committed to investigating and dismantling these types of organizations,” said CODE team Lieutenant Ken Mannix. “We will continue to work with our local, state, and federal partners to ensure that those responsible for the trafficking of narcotics and firearms are held accountable to the fullest extent of the law.”  

Earlier this month all three pled guilty in Deschutes County Circuit Court.

Jacob Quesada pled guilty to unlawfully furnishing a firearm in furtherance of a felony when he reasonably should have known a felony would be committed and the unlawful delivery of methamphetamine, and recklessly endanger another when attempting to flee from police during a traffic stop.

Cynthia Job, longtime girlfriend and mother of Quesada’s children plead guilty to unlawfully furnishing a firearm, for unlawfully and knowingly transporting a firearm in furtherance of a felony, when she should have reasonably known a felony would be committed with a firearm. She also plead guilty to delivering methamphetamine within 1,000 feet of school.

Cynthia’s grandfather, Dennis Job, plead guilty to unlawfully furnishing a firearm, for selling firearms in furtherance of a felony when he reasonably should have known a felony would be committed with the guns. He also plead guilty to providing false information on an ATF 4473 form during the purchase of a firearm.      

For more information about ATF and its programs visit www.atf.gov, follow ATF on Twitter @ATFHQ or like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/HQATF

 

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Seattle Field Division