PORTLAND, Ore. — The Multnomah County Sheriff's Office seized more than 50 pounds of powdered fentanyl in a single major drug bust Thursday morning. In a news release, the sheriff's office described the seizure as the largest in the agency's history and one of the largest in state history.
The sheriff's Dangerous Drugs Team raided locations in Portland and Oregon City in the early morning hours, the culmination of a months-long investigation into a drug trafficking organization selling fentanyl in the Portland tri-county area that identified multiple suspects and co-conspirators.
Deputies found more than 52 pounds of fentanyl powder at the Portland location, nearly all of which had been stored in a single trash bag inside a box.
The Oregon City location yielded more than one pound of fentanyl powder and over 8,000 pills. Deputies also seized over $30,000 in cash and multiple guns, including two that had been broken down and concealed in packages addressed to overseas locations, the sheriff's office said.
Three people were arrested: 23-year-old Luis Funez, 21-year-old Gerson Isaac Hernandez Betancurt and 37-year-old Dezirae Ann Torset. The suspects were booked into Multnomah County jail and the case was referred to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
The drug team estimated that the seized fentanyl is equivalent to 11 million doses and would likely have been sold in the Portland area.
The U.S. Marshals Service, the FBI and the Clackamas County Inter-Agency Task Force assisted in executing the search warrants on Thursday.
A 50-pound bust might set a new record, but several other recent Portland-area drug busts have yielded similarly large seizure amounts, including a September bust that turned up 28 pounds of fentanyl from a single car in downtown Portland and a March 2022 bust in which federal agents sized more than 20 pounds.