Federal narcotics agents armed with a warrant burst into a room at a Budget Inn in Portland this week and seized more than two kilograms of rainbow-colored fentanyl and eight guns wrapped in tin foil to be shipped to Honduras, according to an affidavit unsealed in court Wednesday.
They arrested Jose Isidro Zuniga Torres, 47, who lives in Portland, on an accusation of conspiring to possess and possessing with intent to distribute fentanyl.
The arrest is part of a larger investigation into an alleged drug trafficking ring suspected of smuggling fentanyl, cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine from Mexico into the United States for distribution in Oregon and Washington, according to the affidavit.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s Portland office is working on the case with agents from federal Homeland Security Investigations and Tigard police.
So far, the investigation has brought indictments against eight suspected members of the ring and resulted in seizures of about 5 kilograms of powdered fentanyl, 4.5 kilograms of heroin, 45,000 counterfeit oxycodone pills laced with fentanyl and 12 guns, according to the affidavit.
On Monday, investigators kept watch on Zuniga Torres and a younger man as they left a Motel 6 room in Portland carrying multiple boxes and loaded them into a black Nissan Altima. The investigators followed the two men to a Budget Inn room in Portland, where the men unloaded the boxes, according to the affidavit. The affidavit didn’t identify the specific locations of either motel.
About 9 a.m. Tuesday, the officers knocked on the door of the Budget Inn room and then forced their way inside when no one answered, the affidavit says.
They found about half of the powdered fentanyl in a green plastic bag beside a bed and the other half concealed inside of speakers that were packaged in large cardboard boxes wrapped in tape, according to the affidavit.
About 417 grams of blue pills stamped with “M30″ were packaged in small bags beside the bed, and individually wrapped packages of cocaine were discovered in a plastic Big Gulp cup on a table in the room, a federal narcotics agent wrote in the affidavit.
Investigators confiscated about 393 grams of crystal methamphetamine and 49 grams of cocaine, the affidavit said.
Zuniga Torres said the cocaine and powdered fentanyl, fentanyl pills and methamphetamine found near the bed were his. He said the guns were to be shipped to Honduras and were wrapped in tinfoil and clothing so police wouldn’t be able to detect them.
The dyed rainbow-colored powdered fentanyl started showing up in greater quantities in the Portland metro area last year, when the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office and county health department partnered to alert the public to the danger of a drug that resembles colored chalk.
Zuniga Torres made his first appearance in court Wednesday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Jolie A. Russo represented by Assistant Federal Public Defender Michelle Sweet. He was ordered to remain custody as the case proceeds to trial. His arraignment is set for Feb. 23.
-- Maxine Bernstein
Email mbernstein@oregonian.com; 503-221-8212
Follow on Twitter @maxoregonian
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