Amite County sheriff’s deputies have arrested a McComb man suspected of burglarizing a home and posing as a Border Patrol agent to rob several undocumented immigrants at gunpoint.
Deputies booked 37-year-old Drew Wallace, 1117 Virginia Ave., on three counts of armed robbery and one count of burglary of an occupied dwelling on Tuesday. He remains in the Amite County jail with bond set at $45,000.
The three armed robbery charges stem from a May 15 incident at a residence in the 6700 block of Highway 584, Osyka.
Knowing three undocumented immigrants were at that residence, Wallace allegedly went there and identified himself as a U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agent, Sheriff Tim Wroten said.
Wroten said Wallace then brandished a handgun, took the victims’ wallets and fled.
The day before, deputies responded to a report of a burglary in the 6900 block of Highway 568, near Gillsburg. Wallace allegedly entered that residence through an unlocked door and stole an unknown amount of cash.
Wroten said a man who was working outside the home came in through the back door, and the intruder fled.
Because it is a federal crime to impersonate a federal law enforcement officer, a charge of falsely identifying himself as a Border Patrol agent would have to be levied by a federal agency.
