A 19-year-old Damascus woman is accused of selling a variety of drugs to other teenagers on social media under the moniker, “Kiki’s Delivery Service.”
She began one message, writing, “Happy Holiday my Loves.” Then amid admonitions to “make the best out of any situation,” she directed her more than 1,000 followers to “hit me up,” using the shorthand “hmu,” for orders of “$100+,” according to a federal complaint.
Averi Rose Dickinson, dressed in blue jail garbs, made her first appearance in federal court in Portland Thursday afternoon.
Assistant Federal Public Defender Chandra Peterson entered not guilty pleas on Dickinson’s behalf to federal drug charges, including the distribution and possession with the intent to distribute a controlled substance, conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance and possession of a firearm in a drug-trafficking crime.
Dickinson is accused of advertising cocaine, acid, ecstasy, Xanax and a variety of real and counterfeit oxycodone pills for sale on Telegram, Snapchat and Instagram social media, according to a federal affidavit.
After taking orders, Dickinson either delivered the drugs herself, sent others to do drop offs or arranged for customers to pick up their goods at her home, according to a federal affidavit. Two teenagers, ages 16, were among the drug runners distributing the goods for her, according to prosecutors.
She slept with a loaded Glock under her pillow, kept an assault rifle tucked behind her washing machine and left a ballistic vest in her car for good measure, the affidavit said.
The FBI initiated an investigation after a Clackamas County task force suspected she was the source of the drugs that resulted in several juvenile overdoses, according to Bobby Gutierrez, a FBI agent.
“The defendant was an armed drug dealer who had been selling drugs to kids for almost three years - not only did she market and sell drugs to kids, but she also employed minors as runners to help deliver her drugs,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott Kerin wrote to the court.
Dickinson told investigators that she advertised to everyone but estimated that about 50 % of her customers were juveniles, the FBI agent wrote in the affidavit.
She denied providing any drugs that led to overdoses, contending she’d test the pills ahead of her sales to check if they were laced with fentanyl, according to the affidavit.
Investigators conducted an undercover drug buy from Dickinson, ordering up to 100 Xanax pills and bars, and alleged oxycodone pills for $340. Once the deal was done, agents had the pills tested and found the purported Xanax pills sold contained the drug benzodiazepine, a depressant that is not approved for medical use and can lead to serious adverse effects, including death, according to the prosecutor.
Dickinson apparently left jade-colored hearts in the bag of drugs she sold, according to court records.
Dickinson “was aware that the Xanax bars were counterfeit and, in a social media post, noted that her Xanax bars were ‘Definitely the strongest benzodiazepine press in Oregon,’ ” according to Kerin.
FBI agents, working with Clackamas County sheriff’s deputies, Portland police and Homeland Security Investigations officers, searched her home Wednesday and found a loaded 9mm Glock under her bedroom pillow, an extended magazine of ammunition tucked under her mattress and a loaded assault rifle in the laundry room behind the washing machine, Gutierrez wrote in the affidavit.
They located eight grams of cocaine, two grams of ketamine, marijuana and about 25 counterfeit Xanax bars in her closet and $3,190 in cash in her bookshelf, the affidavit said.
A ballistic vest was seized from her car, with the ballistic plates for the vest found in her bedroom, the agent wrote in the affidavit.
Dickinson told investigators she had bought the Glock pistol for $600 from a 16-year-old who she said had stolen it from his parents, according to Kerin. The gun, she said, was for protection because people knew she was “moving product,” Kerin said.
Drug dealing was Dickinson’s main source of income for at least the past three years, according to the prosecutor. She told investigators she’d make one to ten drug deliveries a day, and use other drug runners to make additional sales about once a week, Kerin wrote in a motion to the court. Her only other legitimate job was a six-month stint at a fast-food restaurant, according to the prosecutor. She lived with her mom in the Damascus home that was searched, according to the prosecutor.
Kerin urged Dickinson to be held as a danger to the community and risk of non-appearance for her next court date.
Dickinson did not challenge her continued detention as she appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge John V. Acosta. Peterson, her assistant federal public defender, said her client may return to ask for release once she can propose a suitable release plan. The 19-year-old is set to return to court on July 13.
