Feds find explosives, trenches, guns at Oregon preserve

Federal prosecutors said Wednesday nine additional people from six states have been charged in connection with the armed occupation of the wildlife refuge.

“Occupiers appear to have excavated two large trenches and an improvised road on or adjacent to grounds containing sensitive artifacts”, U.S. Attorney Billy Williams of or wrote in the filing. According to a court filing reported by Reuters, the shit hole was either on top of or next to “grounds containing sensitive artifacts” of the Burns Paiute Native American Tribe.

The documents do not say why the Federal Bureau of Investigation is concerned about traps, but gives no indication any devices were found. The remaining four holdouts at the wildlife refuge surrendered February 11.

In her complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Oregon, Cox also says the group seized control of Malheur at a time when the refuge was preparing to shut down for the winter. The government is willing to let the defense and its investigators examine the refuge after evidence has been collected but before it reopens to the public, Knight and Barrow said.

Ammon Bundy’s lawyers want their investigators and videographers to have access to the scene immediately to observe the FBI’s activities.

Bundy and other protesters started out demonstrating against the sentencing of Dwight Hammond and his son Steven, ranchers who were convicted of arson on federal lands in Oregon.

Shawna Cox, 59, was the only woman occupier arrested during a traffic stop along Highway 395 on January 26.

Evidence collection should take around 21 days, federal prosecutors said.

The total outlay may not be known for weeks or months, but the remote location of the occupation, at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in the eastern part of the state, combined with the complexity of the law enforcement response, suggest a costly operation, said Brian Levin, a criminal justice expert at California State University San Bernardino.