Law enforcement officials said it was the largest one-day roundup of drug-dealing suspects in recent Oregon history.

The investigation, "Operation Trojan Horse," was begun after the bodies of two suspected drug traffickers from California were found shot and buried last October on a ranch outside Bonanza, a tiny community 25 miles east of Klamath Falls.

The right-wing newspaper La Razón has reported that Mr Sánchez Gordillo’s government is in debt to the tune of €2.83m (£2.4m), and also quotes sources close to the town as saying there are months of back payments owed to workers in the co-operatives. Other villagers claim, according to La Razón, that “if you don’t go to protest” – as happened recently at another land-grab in the military terrain of Las Turquillas – “then you don’t get a job”. There have been repeated assertions that Mr Sánchez Gordillo does not share his power and has not held a full village council meeting for 13 months.