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Cops lower boom in Wolf Creek By JEFF BARNARD The Associated Press ROSEBURG -- Authorities today showed off a pile of guns, cash, motorcycle gang colors and marijuana-growing gear seized in raids across southern Oregon. Spread out across tables in the Douglas County Sheriff's Department headquarters, the material was seized as part of a continuing investigation into alleged racketeering by the southern Oregon chapter of the Vagos motorcycle gang. Some 100 police officers -- including SWAT teams equipped with armored personnel carriers and backed up by a helicopter -- staged a series of dawn raids Wednesday in Josephine and Douglas counties. Officers arrested five men on a variety of firearms, theft and drug charges and are looking for a married couple on extortion and conspiracy counts. Douglas County Sheriff's Detective Commander Tim Robeson said only one of the people arrested, Steve Ray Rives of Murphy, was a target in their year-long investigation into the Vagos motorcycle gang. Robeson said they ultimately hoped to bring racketeering charges against the gang members, but that might be a year away. The Vagos gang has its origins in Mexico and established a chapter in the Grants Pass-Wolf Creek area 6 to 8 year ago, authorities said. "They are involved in theft by extortion, kidnapping, armed robbery, assault, prostitution, methamphetamine and marijuana," Robeson said. The two people being sought were identified as Robert and Alisha Perius of Wolf Creek. Authorities said they found $43,700 in cash in a safe in the attic of Robert Perius' mother's house in Myrtle Creek. Seven faded denim vests with green Vagos emblems, some T-shirts with skulls and the word Vagos were also found there. Tee weapons -- many of them stolen -- included two assault rifles, eight shotguns, and eight pistols, police said. Authorities also displayed a banner saying "Green Nation Gear," two jars of marijuana butts, a mirror with a swastika, a computer and a black storage container for an armor-piercing rocket. Rives was charged with theft by extortion and criminal extortion. Also arrested were John Cary Banner, of Grants Pass, charged with five counts of a felon in possession of a firearm and three counts of a felon in possession of a restricted weapon; Larry Winfred Cox, of Merlin, charged with seven counts of a felon in possession of a firearm; Brian Wayne White, of California, charged with possession of marijuana; and Mark Frederick Hummel, of Wolf Creek, charged with two counts of theft and one count of possession of stolen property. Banner, who owned a Grants Pass tattoo parlor, was considered a prospect for becoming a gang member, Robeson said, but the other three were not know to be members. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA