Oakland man found dead inside U-Haul was allegedly involved in marijuana robbery, police say

A man found dead inside a U-Haul in the Bay Area earlier this month is believed to have been involved in an armed robbery in Northern California, law enforcement officials said this week.

San Francisco police believe the death, which was reported to authorities on Aug. 4, occurred in the Berry Creek area of Butte County, the Butte County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release.

The man, later identified as Alexander Licona-Romero, 21, of Oakland, was allegedly involved in an armed robbery of an illegal marijuana grow with two other suspects, according to evidence found during a Sheriff’s Office investigation.

Licona-Romero was traveling with two other people from the Bay Area to Berry Creek and was allegedly shot during the robbery, officials said. After he was shot, at least two individuals transported him back to the Bay Area, where one of them reported the incident to the San Francisco Police Department, according to the Butte County sheriff’s news release.

The investigation is ongoing. Anyone with information is asked to call the Butte County Sheriff’s Office felony investigations unit at 530-538-7671.