Two Altoona men posing as DEA agents are facing charges after an incident in the city last week.

Stephen Espenlaub and Angel Vazquez are in custody on charges stemming from a plot that netted the two $4,000 and six pounds of marijuana. 

Investigators say that an Altoona man claims that Espenlaub and Vazquez, posing as DEA agents, busted into his home along 1300 block of Ninth Street on December 18^th. 

The target said that at the end of the bogus raid, Espenlaub and Vazquez, told him that it was his “lucky day” and he wasn’t going to be arrested.  The two also allegedly told him to stop dealing drugs and they would be watching him.  The target said he thought they were crooked cops until he received a letter on Thursday demanding more money and drugs and that if he didn’t comply he and his family were running the risk of being arrested. 

The target then contacted a lawyer, who in turn contacted Altoona Police.

Altoona police say incidents like this make things tougher for them and more dangerous for the public in that when legitimate officers arrive at a scene for something like executing a search warrant, people may not easily comply fearing it may be a scam of sort.