Sweet Home man sentenced to federal prison for drug dealing
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A Sweet Home man was sentenced Thursday, July 21, to federal prison 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, 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 Sept. 12, 2019, an undercover federal agent arranged to meet Bishop and an accomplice at a hotel in Corvallis to purchase methamphetamine.
Once 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 Oct. 30, 2019, Bishop and an accomplice were arrested following a traffic stop as part of a joint local and federal law enforcement operation.
On Oct. 24, 2019, Bishop was charged by criminal complaint with distributing methamphetamine and illegally possessing a firearm as a convicted felon. Later, on Feb. 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.
