Oregon, My Oregon

John Sexton at Hat Hair, Oregon Police Made One of the Biggest Fentanyl Busts in State History Then Released the Ringleader

As we discussed yesterday, state and local officials have come up with a new plan to revive the city of Portland. One of the top items on their agenda is to reign in open-air drug use, something the voters of Oregon decriminalized back in 2020.

But we may have a ways to go before Portland can be rescued from the poor decision making of its own elected officials, at least we do if this story is any guide. Portland-area law enforcement officials made one of the biggest fentanyl busts in state history last Thursday. At the time it seemed like reason to celebrate.

A months-long investigation by the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office Dangerous Drugs Team resulted in one of the largest illegal fentanyl seizures in state history, and the largest seizure in agency history…

Search warrants were executed at locations in Portland and Oregon City. At the Portland location, law enforcement located more than 52 pounds of powdered fentanyl. At the Oregon City location, more than one pound of fentanyl powder and over 8,000 fentanyl pills were discovered.

The police press release went on to say that this amount of fentanyl found would have been turned into 11 million doses of the drug destined for Portland’s streets.

So about a day's supply for Portland? 

Getting that amount of drugs off the street was a big win and best of all the police caught the people involved at the scene of the crime. Specifically, they caught 23-year-old Luis Funez, the suspected ringleader, fleeing the house where the drugs were stored.

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.”

His girlfriend, Dezirae Ann Torset, 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 startup,” but admitted to police that 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. 

It’s hard to imagine how a bust that could go much better than that. You’ve got the drugs and you’ve got the suspects at the scene. After his arrest, Funez even admitted that the drugs weren’t for baking cookies but were in fact fentanyl. It’s really a perfect outcome to this point.

Oops! Just one problem. Luis Funez may not be heading to trial. After being busted with one of the largest fentanyl stashes in state history he was immediately released by the Multnomah County Department of Community Justice.

Multnomah County jail records show Funez was booked at 10:30 a.m. Thursday and released later that same day. His court record includes a pretrial release assessment filed Thursday afternoon and a release agreement that states he must appear in person for a court hearing the following morning. A subsequent document filed Friday states that he failed to appear at that hearing.

So apparently what happened here is that prosecutors planned to file a bunch of charges stemming from the drug bust but for reasons that still aren’t clear they didn’t get around to it in time and that meant Community Justice had nothing to hold him on. They couldn’t even hang on to him for 24 hours.

Friday morning a judge issued a new arrest warrant for Funez who, not surprisingly, failed to show up for court. He had previously come to Portland from Sacramento but is originally from Honduras and no one has any idea where he is now. I don’t know what kind of time he’s facing for having 50 pounds of fentanyl but I’m guessing he’ll never be back to Portland unless police get lucky. 

He's probably getting ready to build a mansion in Honduras even as we speak, if he didn't have one already.