Drug agents pull over, arrest ‘significant’ Bend cocaine trafficking suspect, make record 6.2-lb. haul

(Update: Adding video, comments from sheriff's office, Restaurant Assn.)

'We have seen a big influx of cocaine over the last couple years here in Bend'

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) – A three-month investigation of a “significant” cocaine trafficker to Bend-area bars and nightclubs led to a traffic stop and arrest late last week of a 46-year-old Bend man and a Central Oregon-record seizure of 6.2 pounds of the drug, along with $266,000 in cash, drug agents said Wednesday. A judge later set his bail at $1 million.

Central Oregon Drug Enforcement Team detectives, assisted by Deschutes County sheriff’s deputies, pulled over Jeremy Bruce Minteer around 7 p.m. last Thursday evening on Highway 97 near Grandview Drive on the north end of Bend, Sergeant Kent Vander Kamp said.

“We realized that he was very active and very busy selling drugs throughout Bend," Vander Kamp said.

Detectives applied for and obtained a search warrant for Minteer’s 2012 Jeep Grand Cherokee and his apartment at the corner of Southwest Century Drive and Simpson Avenue, Vander Kamp said.

The sergeant said the arrest followed “a multi-day surveillance operation” throughout the Bend and Portland areas.

“Just think of the old school TV shows that you see," Vander Kamp said of their investigation. "Sometimes, some old-school police work just following a person tells you a lot about them.”

Drug agents identified Minteer “as a significant cocaine distributor in the Central Oregon area,” Vander Kamp said, allegedly “importing large quantities of cocaine from the Portland area” for distribution in “Bend-area bars, taverns and nightclubs.”

Drug activity in the service industry isn’t surprising to Oregon Restaurant and Lodge Association President Jason Brandt.

“Like any industry we’re going to have bad actors, and there’s going to be issues that have to be addressed as an association," Brandt said.

He added that he thinks stress from the pandemic could be pushing this increase in drug use, but says managers need to do a better job at communicating with their staff about what they see. 

“We have absolutely zero tolerance for drugs and sex trafficking within our establishments,” Brandt said. 

The search of Minteer’s Jeep turned up the “sizable quantity of cocaine” in “kilo-sized packages, still in the source country packaging,” Vander Kamp said, adding that it is “believed to be the largest cocaine seizure from a single person in Central Oregon.” The estimated value of the seized cocaine is $100,000.

Vander Kamp said drug use, specifically cocaine, is on the rise.

“Cocaine kind of ebbs and flows with the different times of the year, but we have seen a big influx of cocaine over the last couple years here in Bend,” Vander Kamp said. 

He said they’re monitoring all drug use in Central Oregon, but cocaine is typically seen in more affluent areas.

“It's not a typical drug we see in other parts of our community, like Jefferson County or Madras or Crook County. It's not something that we see outside of Bend,” Vander Kamp said. “But it is here, and it has come back, and it’s continuing to increase with us.”

The drug agents also seized the “massive cache of US currency and other evidence to support the investigation,” Vander Kamp said. He added that “CODE detectives have identified several associates and customers of Mr. Minteer, and more arrests are expected as the investigation continues.”

Minteer was lodged in the Deschutes County Jail on initial charges of cocaine possession, manufacture and attempted distribution.

He appeared in court last Friday on the initial formal charges of cocaine manufacture and attempt to distribute, Class B and C felonies, and cocaine possession, a Class A misdemeanor. Circuit Judge Randy Miller set his bail at $1 million, court records show. He is due back in court Friday for arraignment on a grand jury's indictment on those charges, which Vander Kamp said was returned Wednesday.