Four men are charged with trafficking 1.4 metric tons of liquid heroin after federal agents seized 55-gallon barrels from a U-Haul truck they had followed to the lot of a Motel 6 in Tigard, according to court records.
The men arrested in the early morning hours of Jan. 25 are accused of trafficking the drug for the Sinaloa, Mexico-based drug cartel.
Agents said the truck was rented in Yakima, Washington, and authorities, acting on a tip, spotted it traveling westbound on Interstate 84 near Bonneville and followed it for more than 50 miles to the lot of the motel.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott Kerin called the amount of the liquid heroin “astronomical” — equivalent to nearly 370 gallons.
“It’s an insane amount,” Kerin said Thursday in court. “Something we haven’t seen here in Oregon — nothing even has come close to that in the past.”
He estimated that a fatal dose of heroin is about 30 milligrams. The 1.4 metric tons would provide 53.3 million fatal doses, Kerin told a judge. Not only the amount of the drug but its liquid state is unusual, Kerin said.
Federal agents from Homeland Security Investigations initially suspected the barrels were carrying liquid fentanyl. Field tests returned positive results for fentanyl but further analysis by a forensic scientist in the Oregon State Crime Lab showed the seven barrels contained heroin, according to court documents.
Mexico-based drug cartels are attempting to increase their profit margins by introducing liquid drugs that can be injected through a syringe into the U.S. market, federal Homeland Security Investigations Agent Nathan Bresee wrote in the affidavit.
The drug trafficking organizations are “till trying to develop the correct formulation, hence there have been range of concentrations and different compositions,” the agent wrote.
The case began with a tip that someone tied to the drug cartel was renting a U-Haul truck in Yakima and headed to the Portland area.
Federal agents, working with Washington County sheriff’s deputies, spotted the 26-foot truck near Bonneville and started to follow it late in the evening of Jan. 24, according to a federal affidavit.
The truck and an accompanying pickup stopped briefly in the lot of a commercial business in Beaverton before continuing to the Motel 6, the affidavit said.
Federal agents obtained warrants to search the motel room, red pickup and the U-Haul truck and raided Room 115 of the motel early on Jan. 25.
One of the four men attempted to escape out a back bedroom window but was caught.
Santos Alisael Aguilar Maya, 32, Marco Antonio Magallion, 44, Luis Deleon Woodward, 28, and Jorge Luis Amador, 25, were arrested, each accused of conspiracy to distribute heroin and possession with the intent to distribute heroin.
U.S Magistrate Judge Jeffrey Armistead granted pretrial release to two of the four men, Amador and Woodward. The U.S. Attorney’s Office is challenging Armistead’s order releasing Woodward to a full U.S. District Court judge. Maya didn’t contest his continued detention. Magallion awaits a release hearing.
Amador is accused of renting the U-Haul truck and driving it. Woodward was a passenger in the red pickup. Two guns also were found inside the motel room, according to court documents.
Woodward’s defense lawyer, Casey Kovacic, said Woodward had no connection to the U-Haul truck and just grabbed a ride with a friend from Yakima to Portland in the pickup.
Investigators from the Washington County-based High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Task Force, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, FBI and Homeland Security Investigations were involved in the arrest.
