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3 Accused In Robbery Involving Guns, Drugs, GPS

DENVER (AP) - A federal grand jury has indicted three men accused of kidnapping a Thornton drug dealer and his family at gunpoint in a robbery scheme involving a GPS tracker and a stolen police uniform.

Augustus Sanford, 34, of Denver and Killiu Ford, 37, of Aurora, were in state or federal custody Thursday, but Tracy Morgan, 40, of Denver was still at large as of Thursday afternoon.

Denver FBI Special Agent James Yacone said the arrests culminated a two-year investigation into drug trafficking activities of local organizations and their out-of-state suppliers.

The case represented the first time the Denver Safe Streets Metro Gang Task Force used kidnapping statutes that were enhanced in 2006 to broaden federal jurisdiction, he said.

The grand jury indictment alleges Sanford, Ford and Morgan plotted with another man to rob the man's drug supplier in 2009.

The indictment alleges they followed the supplier's movements with a GPS tracker they put on his car when he delivered cocaine to them.

On the night of Sept. 22, 2009, the indictment alleges, the defendants found the supplier in Edgewater. As he and his wife put their daughters into car seats, the defendants jumped out of their vehicles, drew their guns and announced they were police before driving the wife and children in the family's car to the family's home. Sanford allegedly was wearing a police uniform he got by exchanging drugs with a minor whose father was an officer.

The drug supplier was kidnapped in a separate vehicle and later pushed out onto the side of a road.

The defendants are accused of taking about $30,000, jewelry and other items from the family after ransacking the home and pointing a gun at one daughter's head while demanding that the wife show them where the drugs and money were.

All face four kidnapping charges, plus a count of conspiracy to kidnap, and a count of possessing a firearm during a crime of violence. Morgan and Ford also face a charge of being a felon with a firearm that had been transported in interstate commerce.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)

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