Ventura County – According to Ventura County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Detective Gabriel Gonzales, when four men working together as “pill farmers” who had “been visiting several doctors throughout the Southern California area obtaining prescription medications” had an apparent falling out over their individual and collective financial obligations, violence became the tool used to collect certain debts among them.
On June 7, 2017, VCSD deputies working out of the Thousand Oaks Police Department arrived at a local area residence to investigate a reported home invasion robbery.
The victim of the robbery reported that “three suspects forced entry” into the home and then “battered him and stole approximately twelve hundred dollars.” The following two months involved detectives from the East Valley Major Crimes Unit and the Thousand Oaks Police Special Enforcement unit who soon came to understand that the victim and his three assailants had been collaboratively involved in the illegal sales of pharmaceuticals and assorted prescription medications.
Moreover, detectives concluded that the home invasion and the assault were an effort to collect cash proceeds from their illegal prescription drug sales enterprise.
Two of the suspects were ultimately identified as Thousand Oaks residents Brandon Jefferson, 30, and Daniel Rogers, 29. On August 8th, Jefferson was found at his home, while Rogers was located in Burbank. Both were taken into custody and transported to Ventura County Jail on that day, while the third unidentified suspect remained at large.
It wasn’t until August 25th that the identity of that third suspect was made known to law enforcement, whereupon 30-year-old Brandon Dreher was located at his Hollywood residence and taken into custody and transported to Ventura County Jail.
Jefferson and Rogers were booked into Ventura County Jail on charges of robbery, home invasion, and battery, with their bail set at $200,000 each. Dreher was similarly charged, with his bail set at $500,000.
Photo: Courtesy Ventura County Jail Booking
