Three men were arraigned Tuesday on multiple charges after being arrested by the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office (DCSO) on Thursday, Oct. 16, at approximately 11 p.m.

DCSO patrol deputies conducted a traffic stop on Esmerelda Avenue in Minden, Nevada, on an unregistered vehicle. The driver, Enrique Orozco, stated that he knew the vehicle was not registered and that it did not belong to him.  

Orozco provided a valid California driver’s license. The two other passengers in the vehicle, Brando Perez-Pena and Elmer Cante-Pocasangre, provided Guatemalan identification cards.

Orozco gave the deputies consent to search the vehicle. During the search of the vehicle, deputies located a handgun, suspected methamphetamine, and suspected cocaine. Also located in the vehicle was a large amount of mail belonging to people other than the occupants of the vehicle and a device with a glue-type rat trap on the end used to pull mail out of mailboxes.

In the mail located in the vehicle were 147 checks that various victims had attempted to mail. The total of the 147 checks $149,857.73. Fifteen of the checks had been altered to make the check payable to the driver of the vehicle, Orozco. Also located was evidence indicating that the occupants of the vehicle had been practicing forging the signatures of the account holders of the checks.

The mail appears to have been stolen from mailboxes in Washoe County, Lyon County, Carson City and a number of California communities. None of the mail appears to have been stolen from mailboxes in Douglas County.

This case is very similar to a case earlier this year where two suspects were using a similar device to steal mail from mailboxes. In both cases, the suspects were targeting the blue mailboxes outside of U.S. Post Offices. DCSO recommends that anyone mailing a check take it inside the post office and not use the blue mailboxes outside.

All three occupants of the vehicle were booked in the DCSO Minden Jail for: Possession of a controlled substance for sale, possession of stolen property, obtaining personal identifying information, possession of burglary tools, possession of a firearm by a prohibited person and uttering forged instruments.

At the DCSO Jail, it was learned that all three defendants are in the county illegally. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has placed immigration holds on all three defendants:

 – Orozco, Enrique, a 48-year-old male from Gardena, Calif. Bail is set at $200,000.

– Perez-Pena, Brando Maximiliano, a 27-year-old male from Los Angeles, Calif. Bail is set at $200,000.

– Cante-Pocasangre, Elmer Eulise, a 35-year-old male from Los Angeles, Calif. Bail is set at $200,000.