Tips, complaints lead to surveillance, drug raid on NE Bend home; six arrested in breakup of fentanyl trafficking ring
CODE Team: Two caught allegedly removing drug evidence from home, tipped of earlier arrests
BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) – Community tips and complaints led to several weeks’ surveillance of a northeast Bend home where fentanyl and other drugs were believed to be trafficked, followed by a raid that turned up substantial quantities of drugs and the arrest of six Bend residents, drug agents said Sunday.
The last two arrests were of a man and woman who allegedly were tipped of the earlier arrests and were caught trying to remove drug evidence from the home when detectives arrived to serve the search warrant Tuesday night.
Central Oregon Drug Enforcement Team detectives identified three initial suspects after receiving tips and complaints about a home in the 2400 block of Northeast Moonlight Drive, Sgt. Kent Vander Kamp said in a news release. They determined that two men, ages 37 and 24, and a 30-year-old woman “were selling large quantities of fentanyl” in the area around the home, he said.
Last Tuesday, around 4:30 p.m., CODE detectives, assisted by Bend Police officers, contacted the 37-year-old man a 27-year-old woman as they allegedly were selling fentanyl to a third party in a parking lot at the corner of NE Windy Knolls and Twin Knolls drives, Vander Kamp said.
About an hour later, the detectives made a separate traffic stop and took the 30-year-old woman and a 24-year-old man into custody as they left the home on Moonlight Drive.
With evidence collected during the traffic stops, detectives applied for and obtained a search warrant for the home. The raid occurred around 8 p.m. Tuesday – and as detectives arrived, they found a 31-year-old woman and 28-year-old man “attempting to collect and remove drug evidence from the home after being alerted to the earlier arrests,” Vander Kamp said.
The raid turned up “a commercial and substantial quantity” of powdered fentanyl, he said, as well as cocaine, the psychedelic drug diethltryptamine, also known as DET, and fake pharmaceutical pills made of fentanyl.
Three of the six people arrested were booked into the Deschutes County Jail on drug possession and other charges; the other three were cited in lieu of custody on charges of frequenting a place where drugs were used or tampering with evidence.
The 27-year-old woman also was held on an outstanding $10,000 arrest warrant for probation violation an unrelated third-degree robbery conviction last year. She was conditionally released on Wednesday, pending an April 4 arraignment on the probation violation.
Court records Sunday showed no new charges have been filed against the three men and three women. Jail records showed one of those arrested, the 30-year-old woman, remained in jail Sunday, held without bail on a parole violation charge.
NewsChannel 21 policy is not to name arrested individuals until and unless formal charges are filed.
