Notice Oregon’s drug problem

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SlyPokerDog said:
Apparently not scary enough.

Questions Surround Multnomah County Sheriff’s Largest-Ever Fentanyl Bust
The alleged ringleader walked out of jail on Thursday without being charged with a crime.

On Friday, the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office announced its biggest fentanyl bust to date, after raiding two houses in Northeast Portland and Oregon City on Thursday and finding the equivalent of over 11 million doses of fentanyl.

It was “one of the largest illegal fentanyl seizures in state history,” according to a Dec. 9 statement from the sheriff’s office.

But the fate of the alleged ringleader remains unclear. Luis Funez, 23, was arrested fleeing from his house in the Cully neighborhood of Northeast Portland. He was booked in jail on outstanding warrants—and then released, with instructions to return to the courthouse the following morning. Court records say he did not.

The sheriff’s office says the case has been referred to federal prosecutors, but charges related to Thursday’s bust have yet to be filed. And the whereabouts of Funez, who recently arrived in Portland by way of Sacramento, remain unclear.

These facts came to light after Multnomah County prosecutors filed charges against Funez’ allegedly accomplice, 21-year-old Gerson Isaac Hernandez Betancurt who cops say was a lower level drug runner who was living in Oregon City.

An affidavit filed by prosecutors late Friday afternoon says Funez, who also goes by Arteaga-Sanchez, was taken to jail on an outstanding warrant with “new charges to follow.” But, he “was released by [the Multnomah County Department of Community Justice] before the new charges could be filed, however.”

A spokesperson for DCJ says the county followed state-mandated guidelines that determine who can be held in jail while they await trial. Neither the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office nor MCSO could immediately respond to questions about the aftermath of the bust. This story will be updated as WW learns more.

Funez’s release puts a bit of a damper on the months-long investigation and its culmination on Thursday, when Multnomah County Sheriff’s deputies and law enforcement in Clackamas County executed search warrants on the two houses. But it also raises questions about why Funez was free to sell drugs for much of the year.

Funez has been on law enforcement radar since at least January of this year, when he was arrested dealing fentanyl in downtown Portland on the corner of Southwest 4th Avenue and Ankeny Street—a short walk from the open-air drug market examined by WW in a July cover story.

Through a Spanish interpreter, Funez told cops in January that he was supplied by a man named Will who “would leave a dark brown plastic bag with drugs at a corner for Funez to pick up.”

On the menu: 3.5 grams of meth for $40, 3.5 grams of fentanyl for $70, and fentanyl pills for $2 a pop. He was serving upwards of 30 customers a day.

He told a county interviewer that he had just arrived in Portland from Sacramento, where he’d lived five years. Previously, he said, he’d lived in Honduras.

He was booked in jail on ten separate felony charges—and immediately released due to court policies that generally prevent the detention of non-violent defendants with limited criminal history.

Three weeks later, he was caught carrying over 100 fentanyl pills and $3,000 in cash during a traffic stop on Southeast Powell Boulevard. Again, he was released and failed to appear at his arraignment in court.

“It certainly is frustrating to arrest the same people over and over,” says Kevin Allen, spokesperson for the Portland Police Bureau, when asked about the bureau’s history with Funez.

Nearly a year later, cops allege he’s running his own drug trafficking organization.

Deputies stormed Funez’s house in the Cully neighborhood on Dec. 7, and apprehended him as he attempted to flee out the back. He claimed, according to the prosecutor’s affidavit, that the 52 pounds of suspected fentanyl “found open in a cardboard box lined with a trash bag” were for “cookie baking.”

Dezirae Ann Torset, his girlfriend, was inside and also arrested. (She’s currently being held in jail on out-of-state warrants.) Torset, 37, said the $7,000 dollars in the Infiniti out front were “funds for her tax/accounting business start-up,” but admitted to police she wasn’t a certified public accountant and “didn’t have the credit to rent the Airbnb where they were at.”

Meanwhile, Clackamas cops were pounding on the door of a house in Oregon City. It was the house of Betancurt, the “runner” who had allegedly delivered drugs when cops made a “controlled purchase” from Funez.

Betancurt was arrested as he fled out the window, carrying a backpack with over 8,000 fentanyl pills.

Inside the house was nearly $25,000 in cash and “two disassembled rifles, an AR-15 and an AK-47″ which the affidavit says were “hidden throughout a care package destined for Honduras.”

Betancurt, like Funez, was approved for immediate release by county officials due to his limited criminal history.

Unlike Funez, he is currently being held in jail on behalf of the U.S. Marshals Service, the enforcement arm of the federal court system.

https://www.wweek.com/news/city/202...y-sheriff-offices-largest-ever-fentanyl-bust/
Click to expand...
You've got to be kidding me...?
 
Kotek’s recipe for Portland: More police and social workers, less plywood, trash and taxes

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A rundown of the top recommendations to come out of the task force:


  • Declaring a 90-day fentanyl emergency. Kotek’s office says ideally the state, Multnomah County and city of Portland would all declare emergencies, helping them to share resources in a state-led “command center” set up to combat fentanyl sales, use and addiction. As part of this effort, Kotek’s task force is proposing concentrating outreach workers focused on mental health and addiction issues on the central city.
  • Making it a crime to use drugs in public. Talked up by city and state officials for months, this proposal is certain to be floated during February’s monthlong legislative session. Since Oregon voters decriminalized possession of small amounts of drugs in 2020, law enforcement says it has little recourse to stop public drug use. Another recommendation calls for stepped-up addiction services for houseless residents if a public use ban is put into law.
  • More shelter space. Kotek says too many people have nowhere to go — day and night. She is pressing for more safe areas for people to spend their time. The release points to $3 million Multnomah County will spend on day services, and a recent pledge by city and county leaders to reduce unsheltered homelessness by 50% in two years. It also talks up county spending that in theory will help people transition from shelters to housing, as well as expand the number of beds available for the unhoused.
  • More police. Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler in August asked Kotek to send nearly 100 state troopers to downtown Portland, to assist a city police force that says it is stretched too thin. Kotek agreed to a small fraction of that number. Her task force is recommending to continue that partnership, add downtown park rangers, and look into adding more non-sworn employees who can respond to low-level incidents. Kotek also wants to ensure that the state’s police academy is training up enough recruits.
  • Less trash and graffiti. The task force is recommending mapping out “trouble spots” for trash and graffiti and steering community volunteer groups toward them. Kotek says she’ll push lawmakers to spend $20 million to remove and prevent trash and graffiti on land the Oregon Department of Transportation controls in and around downtown Portland. That would be the second time the governor had petitioned for a budget bump for ODOT in recent weeks. Kotek already convinced the Legislature to support $19 million to ensure the agency can plow roads and do other routine maintenance.
  • Less plywood on windows. The governor’s recommendations call for downtown buildings to be free of the protective sheathing some have had in place since 2020′s racial justice protests. Kotek’s release said the plywood “sends the wrong signal to visitors.” She wants the plywood gone by next year’s Rose Festival, and calls out downtown’s federal courthouse and justice center — both persistent targets in 2020 — by name.
  • No new taxes. A persistent complaint of late from businesses and leaders like Wheeler is that Portland is one of the highest-taxed cities in the country — the release notes it trails only New York City — but that residents and businesses don’t feel like they are getting much in return. The recommendations calls on elected officials to hold off on any new taxes or fees until the end of 2026 at least. It also calls for further study of the city’s tax structure, and for potentially stepped-up tax credits for downtown businesses.
Read more
 
SlyPokerDog said:
Apparently not scary enough.

Questions Surround Multnomah County Sheriff’s Largest-Ever Fentanyl Bust
The alleged ringleader walked out of jail on Thursday without being charged with a crime.

On Friday, the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office announced its biggest fentanyl bust to date, after raiding two houses in Northeast Portland and Oregon City on Thursday and finding the equivalent of over 11 million doses of fentanyl.

It was “one of the largest illegal fentanyl seizures in state history,” according to a Dec. 9 statement from the sheriff’s office.

But the fate of the alleged ringleader remains unclear. Luis Funez, 23, was arrested fleeing from his house in the Cully neighborhood of Northeast Portland. He was booked in jail on outstanding warrants—and then released, with instructions to return to the courthouse the following morning. Court records say he did not.

The sheriff’s office says the case has been referred to federal prosecutors, but charges related to Thursday’s bust have yet to be filed. And the whereabouts of Funez, who recently arrived in Portland by way of Sacramento, remain unclear.

These facts came to light after Multnomah County prosecutors filed charges against Funez’ allegedly accomplice, 21-year-old Gerson Isaac Hernandez Betancurt who cops say was a lower level drug runner who was living in Oregon City.

An affidavit filed by prosecutors late Friday afternoon says Funez, who also goes by Arteaga-Sanchez, was taken to jail on an outstanding warrant with “new charges to follow.” But, he “was released by [the Multnomah County Department of Community Justice] before the new charges could be filed, however.”

A spokesperson for DCJ says the county followed state-mandated guidelines that determine who can be held in jail while they await trial. Neither the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office nor MCSO could immediately respond to questions about the aftermath of the bust. This story will be updated as WW learns more.

Funez’s release puts a bit of a damper on the months-long investigation and its culmination on Thursday, when Multnomah County Sheriff’s deputies and law enforcement in Clackamas County executed search warrants on the two houses. But it also raises questions about why Funez was free to sell drugs for much of the year.

Funez has been on law enforcement radar since at least January of this year, when he was arrested dealing fentanyl in downtown Portland on the corner of Southwest 4th Avenue and Ankeny Street—a short walk from the open-air drug market examined by WW in a July cover story.

Through a Spanish interpreter, Funez told cops in January that he was supplied by a man named Will who “would leave a dark brown plastic bag with drugs at a corner for Funez to pick up.”

On the menu: 3.5 grams of meth for $40, 3.5 grams of fentanyl for $70, and fentanyl pills for $2 a pop. He was serving upwards of 30 customers a day.

He told a county interviewer that he had just arrived in Portland from Sacramento, where he’d lived five years. Previously, he said, he’d lived in Honduras.

He was booked in jail on ten separate felony charges—and immediately released due to court policies that generally prevent the detention of non-violent defendants with limited criminal history.

Three weeks later, he was caught carrying over 100 fentanyl pills and $3,000 in cash during a traffic stop on Southeast Powell Boulevard. Again, he was released and failed to appear at his arraignment in court.

“It certainly is frustrating to arrest the same people over and over,” says Kevin Allen, spokesperson for the Portland Police Bureau, when asked about the bureau’s history with Funez.

Nearly a year later, cops allege he’s running his own drug trafficking organization.

Deputies stormed Funez’s house in the Cully neighborhood on Dec. 7, and apprehended him as he attempted to flee out the back. He claimed, according to the prosecutor’s affidavit, that the 52 pounds of suspected fentanyl “found open in a cardboard box lined with a trash bag” were for “cookie baking.”

Dezirae Ann Torset, his girlfriend, was inside and also arrested. (She’s currently being held in jail on out-of-state warrants.) Torset, 37, said the $7,000 dollars in the Infiniti out front were “funds for her tax/accounting business start-up,” but admitted to police she wasn’t a certified public accountant and “didn’t have the credit to rent the Airbnb where they were at.”

Meanwhile, Clackamas cops were pounding on the door of a house in Oregon City. It was the house of Betancurt, the “runner” who had allegedly delivered drugs when cops made a “controlled purchase” from Funez.

Betancurt was arrested as he fled out the window, carrying a backpack with over 8,000 fentanyl pills.

Inside the house was nearly $25,000 in cash and “two disassembled rifles, an AR-15 and an AK-47″ which the affidavit says were “hidden throughout a care package destined for Honduras.”

Betancurt, like Funez, was approved for immediate release by county officials due to his limited criminal history.

Unlike Funez, he is currently being held in jail on behalf of the U.S. Marshals Service, the enforcement arm of the federal court system.

https://www.wweek.com/news/city/202...y-sheriff-offices-largest-ever-fentanyl-bust/
Click to expand...

I was thinking, this guy is so fucked. If he is cartel, they're going to kill him. They're not going to chance that he was just released, they're going to assume he is a rat.
 
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