OAKLAND — One man is facing federal cocaine distribution charges and more defendants could be joining him, after federal and state authorities conducted hidden camera surveillance on two adjacent homes here.
The homes, in the 1200 block of 89th Avenue in Oakland, are described by agents with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives as an “open air drug market,” where guns and drugs were sold in broad daylight. All the while, a hidden camera installed on a light pole was pointed right at them, according to court records.
Earlier this month, Temarcus Rogers was hit with a federal charge of selling cocaine and crack from the homes. He faces a maximum sentence of 20 years and a $1 million fine if convicted.
At a hearing Monday, Rogers was appointed an attorney. He remains in custody, and a detention hearing has been set for Thursday.
According to a federal affidavit unsealed Tuesday, the homes have been the subject of criminal investigations going back nearly 10 years. This includes everything from a shooting and stolen gun possession to marijuana sales and “illegal gambling,” the affidavit says.
Authorities began investigating when a federal confidential informant — who was paid by the ATF and has a pending drug case — tipped them off to drug sales in the area. In February 2017, authorities had a mounted video camera installed on the block, pointed at the homes.
What they captured, according to police, were “suspected narcotics traffickers” constantly coming and going from the homes. Authorities say around 20 hand-to-hand drug deals were conducted daily. Federal authorities say the group was coordinated, storing drugs in a filing cabinet, communicating with hand signals and having different people hold different types of drugs.
While the camera filmed, the informant began buying drugs from the group, starting with small amounts of marijuana, authorities said. Eventually, the sales allegedly began to include hundreds of unidentified pills, as well as powder cocaine and crack.
Starting in June 2017, the informant bought several firearms from the home, police said. One of the guns had been reportedly stolen in Reno, and before another deal Rogers allegedly told the informant he was waiting on a gun to come in from Las Vegas.