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12 pounds of Fentanyl pills recently seized near Albany. Photo credit Oregon State Police

From Oregon State Police with edits by Tom Peterson

On November 16, 2022, at approximately 10:30 p.m., an Oregon State Police Senior Trooper stopped a passenger car for failure to drive within its lane of travel on Interstate 5 northbound near milepost 227 south of Albany. 

An ensuing investigation led to the seizure of 12 pounds of fentanyl pills, which are the cause of the spike in overdoses in Oregon and around the country.

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is 50-100 times stronger than morphine. Pharmaceutical fentanyl was developed for pain management treatment of cancer, but it has quickly found its way to the black market and is used to boost Heroin potency or take its place.

Its impact is being felt all over Oregon as well as The Dalles.

Stats from the Oregon Health Authority:

There were 280 unintentional opioid overdose deaths in 2019. There were 472 unintentional opioid overdose deaths in 2020.
There were 745 unintentional opioid overdose deaths in 2021.

In other words, overdoses have almost tripled in Oregon during the past 3 years.

“In the preceding twelve months we’ve had 17 suspected overdose deaths and officers have directly saved the lives of two others who were overdosing by using Narcan,” said The Dalles Police Chief Tom Worthy in October.

During the traffic stop near Albany, Trooper located five large plastic bags, approximately 12 lbs., of suspected fentanyl pills concealed in the trunk of the vehicle.

The driver was identified as Jose Manuel Gonzalez Obeso (22) and the passenger was identified as Carla Joanna Castillo Arce (18) both from Scottsdale, Arizona.  Both subjects were released after being interviewed about their involvement and charges will be referred to the United States Attorney’s Office.

OSP Troopers were assisted during the investigation by Detectives from the OSP-Criminal Investigations Division-Drug Enforcement Section (Domestic Highway Enforcement Initiative), Special Agents with the Drug Enforcement Administration – Salem Resident Office, and the United States Attorney’s Office – District of Oregon – Portland Office. 
The Oregon State Police-Domestic Highway Enforcement Initiative is supported by the Oregon-Idaho High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA).

The Oregon-Idaho HIDTA program is an Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) sponsored counterdrug grant program that coordinates with and provides funding resources to multi-agency drug enforcement initiatives, including the OSP-DHE Initiative.

Other Recent Large Busts

The Dalles

The Dalles Police Officers seizure of 1109 pills of suspected fentanyl pills on Nov. 2.

Eugene

Andre Lavell Johnson, 42, of Portland was arrested after being connected to 18 pounds of Fentanyl on Oct. 19, according to the Eugene Police Department.

According to a statement from the Eugene Police Department, officers found a driver slumped over at the steering wheel at a stop light around 10:49 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 19.

Detectives said they seized 18 pounds of fentanyl in both powder and pill from the car as well as the driver’s home, along with $47,000 in cash and 12 guns. Six of the guns had been reported stolen.

Portland

Police arrested four people accused of trafficking fentanyl in the Portland metro area and made the largest single seizure of fentanyl in state history in March 2022, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Oregon said.

Law enforcement targeting a drug trafficking operation seized more than 150,000 counterfeit prescription pills containing fentanyl and more than 20 pounds of suspected bulk fentanyl, saying the drugs had a street value of about $4 million.