JACKSON COUNTY - Sheriff's Department personnel along with a special ranger commissioned by the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Oklahoma Sate Bureau of Investigation are continuing to interview people in connection with an intrastate cattle and equipment theft ring, and more arrests are coming.

“It's probably the whole Red River Valley,” said Jackson County Sheriff's Investigator Carlton Grimes in regard to the scope of the ongoing probe that has resulted in two arrests locally and involves a “mountain of paperwork” covering seven felonies in Jackson County, including four more cattle thefts, three felonies in Harmon County and one in Tillman County.

Two area men have been arrested in recent thefts and are believed to be part of the broader gang, Grimes said, adding, however, “They're little fish in a big lake.”

Nathan Bradley Roberson, 24, of 1905 Willard in Altus, is jailed on a bond of $25,000, charged with larceny of domestic animals in the theft and sale of nine Black Angus cattle in September. The heifers and steers, stolen from Cody Glynn Cribbs at a pasture located a mile south and a mile west of the intersection of East County Road 164 and South County Road 196, fetched Roberson a $4,697.70 check from Hollis Commission Inc.

Meanwhile, Clayton Buck Stephens, 23, of 315 E. 6th. St. in Duke, is charged with second degree burglary in a recent incident in which he and a couple accomplices allegedly attempted to break into a barn at 16389 South County Road 217. Stephens is under a $35,000 personal recognizance bond and has entered treatment at Cushing Valley Hope in Cushing. Stephens also told Sheriff's deputies that he and another man broke into D & M Accessories south of Altus on U.S. Highway 283 and stole some hand tools as well as 15 to 20 old radiators.

Both men are to appear Oct. 25 for a preliminary hearing conference.

Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association Special Ranger Scott Williamson, who is regional supervisor over 68 counties, will be in Southwest Oklahoma in the coming week to further work with local law enforcement officials in rounding up those responsible for the thefts, Grimes said.

The association was formed in 1877 to combat livestock theft on the trail drive north. Today it is a grassroots organization made up of cattle producers and operators located primarily in Texas and Oklahoma.