At around midnight one night last week, Sgt Matthew Jacobsen of the Portland police bureau in Oregon saw a man and a woman standing next to a silver Dodge Charger on a street corner.
The trunk was open and Jacobsen said he saw a tactical vest with “DEA POLICE” written across it. The sergeant also saw red and blue police lights on the rear license plate and in the front exterior on the headliner.
Upon further investigation, Jacobsen found holsters, handcuffs, badges, credentials and an AR-15 style rifle – later identified as a BB gun. The man, identified as Robert Edward Golden, told Jacobsen that he and the woman were “feds” and that he was a federal agent working in Portland.
The problem was, neither of them were.
That same night, Jacobsen took the pair into the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Portland office, where Golden was arrested.
In a criminal complaint filed last Thursday in the US district court of Oregon, first reported by the Daily Beast, federal prosecutors alleged that Golden had been impersonating a DEA special agent and had for the past year tricked the unsuspecting woman into believing that she was “training to be a DEA agent”.
Golden allegedly told authorities that he and the woman “were into ‘cosplay’ (costume play) and that is why they had the police tactical vests with DEA/Police patches, fake guns and handcuffs.” He reportedly went on to reveal that he bought the fake badges and credentials from various websites, including Amazon, eBay and Wish.
However, according to the complaint, in addition to providing the unnamed woman with a fake DEA badge, Golden took her on nightly fake ride-alongs for surveillance purposes and to practice shooting. He also took her to “speak with homeless individuals to develop ‘CIs’ (confidential informants) for future use in case ‘something happened’ to Golden and he was no longer around to take care of her”.
The woman, who said she attended school for criminal justice and was given credentials by Golden, said that Golden also spoke of DEA agents named Anderson, Luis, Garcia and Bennett. According to her, Golden told her she would soon be training with other agents.
The complaint states there are no agents in the DEA Portland division with those names. The agency also does not provide ride-alongs, the document said.
“I believe Golden has been falsely personating a DEA agent to gain credibility as a federal agent by displaying false identification and badges to gain information from unsuspecting residents, and utilizing red and blue code-3 lighting to traverse through traffic,” wrote Morgan T Barr, DEA special agent, in the affidavit.
The complaint said the woman had been “tricked” by Golden into believing that she was a trainee for the DEA. She is not thought to be facing any charges.
Golden has since been released to await trial on a number of conditions, including needing to secure and maintain a full-time job or attend school or both, limit travel to Oregon unless granted permission otherwise, submit to random drug tests and participate in mental health evaluations. Golden’s lawyer did not immediately respond to requests for comment from multiple media outlets.
If convicted, Golden could face up to three years in prison and a maximum fine of $250,000, according to Greg Nyhus, assistant US attorney.
