Oregon Woman Pleads Guilty To Structuring Financial Transactions
Five Defendants Pleaded Guilty Earlier to Trafficking Marijuana
COEUR D'ALENE – Janette Marie Baucum, 59, of Scio, Oregon, pleaded guilty today in United States District Court in Coeur d’Alene to conspiracy to structure financial transactions, U.S. Attorney Wendy J. Olson announced.
According to statements made in court, in September 2007, Baucum and her husband, co-defendant Robert Baucum, used proceeds of illegal drug activity to purchase a new vehicle in northern Idaho. Baucum and her husband structured the cash portion of the transaction in a manner designed to avoid reporting requirements that may have brought their activity to the attention of law enforcement.
Baucum’s case stems from an ongoing Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) investigation by the Idaho State Police, Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation, Boundary County Sheriff’s Office, and the Drug Enforcement Administration into a marijuana trafficking organization. Five co-defendants – Robert Baucum, Charles Goodenough, Raymond Hogle, Justin Egner, and Ronald Underwood – have pleaded guilty to marijuana conspiracy charges. Four of the men were sentenced last month to serve federal prison terms; the remaining defendant, Justin Egner, is set for sentencing in February 2013. Assets totaling over $1.3 million dollars have been forfeited during the investigation.
The charge of conspiracy to structure financial transactions is punishable by up to five years in prison, a maximum fine of $250,000, and up to three years of supervised release.
Janette Baucum is scheduled to be sentenced on March 5, 2013, before U.S. District Judge Edward J. Lodge at the federal courthouse in Coeur d’Alene.
The case was the result of a joint investigation of the Idaho State Police, Boundary County Sheriff’s Office, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation, Linn County Sheriff’s Office (Oregon), and the Alaska State Troopers.
The OCDETF program is a federal multi-agency, multi-jurisdictional task force that supplies supplemental federal funding to federal and state agencies involved in the identification, investigation and prosecution of major drug trafficking organizations. Task force members include the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Drug Enforcement Administration, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation, and U.S. Marshals Service.
Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) is a collaborative effort by federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies, prosecutors, and communities to prevent and deter gun violence.
