SE Bend methamphetamine raid brings arrests

Four Bend residents face drug charges after a raid earlier this week on a southeast Bend home, where several people were smoking methamphetamine as officers moved in, authorities said Thursday.

Central Oregon Drug Enforcement Team detectives, assisted by Bend police, executed a search warrant around 6 p.m. Tuesday at a home at 147 SE Fourth St., said Lt. Ken Mannix.

The raid followed a short-term investigation into methamphetamine trafficking to several people across the Bend area, Mannix said.

During the raid, officers encountered several people in the home, some of whom were smoking meth at the time, Mannix said. The officers also found a 17-year-old boy living in the home. State Child Protective Services was contacted and the boy’s family came to pick him up, the lieutenant said.

Evidence seized at the home included 9 ounces of meth with an estimated street value of $12,000, Mannix said, along with psilocybin mushrooms, a small amount of marijuana, scales, packaging material, drug records, paraphernalia, cash, stolen property and other evidence of meth manufacturing and sales, Mannix said.

Joel Lee Elshoff, 37; wife Tina Marie Elshoff, 45; Thomas Allen Mercer, 43, and Christa Curtis, 42, face charges of meth possession, manufacture and delivery. The Elshoffs and Mercer were booked at the Deschutes County Jail, where they remained late Thursday. Curtis was issued a citation.

The Elshoffs also are charged with endangering the welfare of a minor.