PORTLAND, Ore. — The Portland Police Bureau announced Friday that it made one of the largest single-day drug seizures in agency history this week, recovering illegal narcotics in the dozens of pounds.
On Thursday, investigators from PPB's narcotics unit and the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) Interdiction Taskforce made a traffic stop on I-5 in the Portland area, the agency said. Police seized 90 pounds of methamphetamine, 11 pounds of fentanyl and 3.8 pounds of heroin, which the agency claims has a total street value of $2 million.
An investigation into the drug trafficking operation is "ongoing and long-term in nature," PPB said, so more details about the case are not being released. However, the agency said investigators know that a significant amount of illegal drugs enter Portland via vehicles traveling on the I-5 corridor, making it a priority for enforcement.
PPB did not indicate if anyone was taken into custody during the Thursday drug bust.
The Oregon HIDTA stems from a federal policy that began back in 1999, with the idea of pooling the resources of different jurisdictions in order to stem the flow of narcotics along the I-5 corridor and on other major routes. It later expanded to include areas of Idaho.
Portland's taskforce consists of members from PPB, Homeland Security Investigations, Oregon State Police, the Internal Revenue Service, United States Postal Inspection Service, Amtrak Police and the Oregon National Guard Counter-Drug Task Force.
