Oregon Drug Smuggler Charged in Murder-for-Hire Plot

An Oregon drug smuggler was charged Monday in a murder-for-hire plot that targeted his associate, according to reports.

The reports said John Tobe Larson, 68, of Josephine County, offered to pay an informant $20,000 to murder his associate and dump his body in the ocean. Larson reportedly met the associate during his time in prison and referred to him as a “rat.”

“He paid the informant $10,000 from money he had made on a marijuana smuggling run to St. Louis and promised the other half — but only if there were pictures showing the victim’s body being dumped at sea, court papers filed in U.S. District Court in Medford state,” according to the Seattle Times.

However, reports said the alleged hitman was actually an undercover agent working for the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Larson told the informant that by disposing of the body in the ocean it would ensure “‘lice and crabs’ would naturally eat away at and dispose of the body, and ‘the teeth are in sediments at the bottom of the ocean,'” the criminal complaint said.

“I have been in this business for over fifty years, this is not my first rodeo,” Larson said to the agent, who was wearing a concealed recording device at the time.

Reports said the Oregon State Police Southwest Region Marijuana Team began their investigation into Larson in early 2019 after they said he was “involved in the interstate distribution of marijuana from southern Oregon throughout the U.S.”

Larson allegedly used private planes to smuggle cash into Oregon, according to the federal complaint.

Authorities arrested Larson in Josephine County, an area in southern Oregon known as the “Emerald Triangle” because of its ideal climate for growing the marijuana plant.

“Since legalization in Oregon, many growers have started state-legal businesses, but authorities say illegal diversion remains a big problem and growers and sellers not registered with the state continue to operate in the shadows,” according to the New York Post.

Reports said Larson is set to appear in court again on September 16.