Five people arrested in Redmond drug raid tied to other busts

A raid late last week on a southwest Redmond home led to the arrest of a couple accused of trafficking in methamphetamine – as well as some recently stolen firearms, officials said Wednesday. Three would-be customers who showed up while drug agents were there also were arrested, they added.

Detectives with the Central Oregon Drug Enforcement Team and the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office Street Crimes Unit executed a search warrant around 9 p.m. last Thursday at a home at 2808 Southwest Pumice Avenue in Redmond, said Lt. Ken Mannix.

The raid followed a nearly two-month investigation that found Dwaine Copeland, 63, and Cassandra Tischler, 48, have been trafficking in meth throughout the tri-county region, Mannix said.

Officers also gathered information implicating the pair in trafficking of firearms recently stolen in a Redmond burglary. A 13-year-old boy was arrested in that case, accused of stealing several guns and a minivan on March 21 from a home on Southwest Mesa Way. The vehicle was found the next day and some of the stolen guns recovered, police said.

Evidence seized during Thursday’s raid on the Pumice Avenue home included “street-level quantities” of meth, Mannix wrote, as well as scales, packaging material and other evidence of meth sales and distribution.

As investigators were processing the scene, Justyn Kroeker, 26, and Amber Maye, 31, arrived to meet with Copeland “for the sole purpose of purchasing methamphetamine,” Mannix said. Both were arrested, as well another woman, Nicole Detroit, 26, who arrived at the home a short time later.

Copeland remained held without bail at the Deschutes County Jail late Wednesday on an out-of-county warrant, as well as various drug charges, including manufacturing and delivering meth within 1,000 feet of a school, along with felon in possession of a weapon and theft by receiving. Tischler was held on similar charges.

Kroeker, facing a fugitive arrest warrant, was being held without bail on a parole violation. Maye, charged with frequenting a place where drugs are used, kept or sold, and Kroker, also charged with hindering prosecution and a probation violation, apparently had been released, based on jail records.