A Linn County, Oregon man was sentenced to federal prison today after he sold methamphetamine and a firearm to an undercover federal agent while on federal supervised release for a previous conviction.
Roger Lee Bishop, 56, a resident of Sweet Home, Oregon, was sentenced to 84 months in federal prison and five years of supervised release.
According to court documents, in August 2019, law enforcement learned that Bishop, a convicted felon, was trafficking methamphetamine in Linn County and had access to firearms. On or about September 12, 2019, an undercover federal agent arranged to meet Mr. Bishop and an accomplice at a hotel in Corvallis, Oregon to purchase methamphetamine. Once Mr. Bishop entered the hotel room, he proceeded to sell approximately four ounces of methamphetamine to the agent. Following the drug sale, Bishop offered and sold a handgun to the agent for $150. On October 30, 2019, Bishop and his accomplice were arrested following a traffic stop as part of a joint local and federal law enforcement operation.
On October 24, 2019, Bishop was charged by criminal complaint with distributing methamphetamine and illegally possessing a firearm as a convicted felon. Later, on February 18, 2021, a federal grand jury in Eugene indicted Bishop on the same charges. On March 24, 2022, Bishop pleaded guilty to both charges.
This case was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) with assistance from the Philomath Police Department, the Linn Interagency Narcotics Enforcement Team (LINE), and the Sweet Home Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney William M. McLaren prosecuted the case.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN). PSN is the centerpiece of the Department of Justice’s violent crime reduction efforts. PSN is an evidence-based program proven to be effective at reducing violent crime. Through PSN, a broad spectrum of stakeholders work together to identify the most pressing violent crime problems in the community and develop comprehensive solutions to address them. As part of this strategy, PSN focuses enforcement efforts on the most violent offenders and partners with locally based prevention and reentry programs for lasting reductions in crime.
