[Music] Well, good afternoon. Thank you very much for joining us. My name is Mike Benner, public information manager here at the Portland Police Bureau. For those of you who did not see it, yesterday we pushed out an attempt to locate news release. I won't get into all the details, but we're looking for two parents who are responsible for their son ingesting fentanyl. And this happened back in 2023 when the little boy was only three years old. He suffered a severe brain injury due to coming in contact with the drug. The boy is now five and living with a DHS caretaker tasked with providing the youngster with 24-hour care when it comes to eating, drinking, and walking. No child should have to deal with what this child is dealing with. And I bring this up because it is cases like this one that explain why drug enforcement is a top priority for law enforcement and ultimately why we do the work uh that we are here to discuss. We want to get these lethal drugs off the streets as well as the dealers uh who are pedalling them. We want to keep the community safe from unnecessary harm, even death. And that desire is why in the first quarter of this year, the Portland Police Bureau in collaboration with the Multma County Sheriff's Office, the Multma County District Attorney's Office, the FBI, the US Attorney's Office, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and the Highintensity Drug Trafficking Area Program, conducted a series of drug enforcement missions centered around fentanyl. These coordinated efforts yielded some rather impressive results. We made 46 arrests. We seized 20 firearms and more than $24,000 in cash. We seized 44 pounds of fentanyl powder along with more than 2500 fentanyl pills. In addition, we seized 22 pounds of meth, 9 lbs of cocaine, and 2 lbs of heroin. This work and these seizures, as you're about to hear, will undoubtedly save lives. With that, I'll turn it over to our speakers. I'm joined by Portland Police Chief Bob Day, Multma County Sheriff Nicole Moresy O'Donnell, District Attorney Nathan Vasquez, the special agent in charge of the FBI's Portland office Doug Olsen, Scott Karen from the US Attorney's Office in the District of Oregon, and the special agent in charge of the DEA Seattle Division, David Rees. We'll kick things off with Chief Day. Thanks, Mike. Good afternoon. And I want to take a moment and recognize a community that has suffered under this terrible burden of fentanyl the last several years. and uh understand is we oftentimes refer to our police officers and emergency responders as front line, but the front line is really the men and women of Portland that uh are either steeped and stuck in addiction or have died on our streets or the businesses and residents um of our city that are exposed to on a regular basis. And uh it saddens me that that is the case, but that's the reality. And I want to recognize the challenges that our communities are facing because of this terrible drug. Second of all, I do want to recognize our first responders, our police officers, our emergency services, our firefighters just this morning as I was coming into work, met by one of our night shift officers who administered Narcan overnight um and uh assisted a person getting to the hospital and getting care. So, I recognize that we have put our members in an impossible situation performing tasks and duties and responsibilities that we never would have expected us to be doing as law enforcement professionals. But we are in that gap because it's necessary and I'm immensely proud of the work of the men and women of the police bureau. But we cannot do this alone. Mayor Wilson has called us to be a high-erforming city and the challenge in this arena specifically is so immense that it it can only be done with the collaboration and the partnerships of the people standing with me today. I'm so grateful for the support of the sheriff and of course the DA but also our federal partners in the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Agency as well as with the uh US Attorney's Office. And I makes me proud when I can see us come together across jurisdictions across federal and state and county boundaries and find a way to be successful to enhance the safety and security for all of Portlanders. And that's what these results demonstrate with the pounds and pounds of elicit drugs that Mike already identified that we took off the streets undoubtedly saved lives. Undoubtedly has made a difference in the streets of Portland and I'm grateful for that. With that, I want to turn it over to Sheriff Moricio for her remarks. Thank you. Thank you, Chief Day. I'm Multma County Sheriff Nicole Moresy O'Donnell. These results are truly only possible in collaboration with the partners that you see here today. We recognize that this work crosses all jurisdictional lines and it is vital that we are working together to stop drugs from entering into our neighborhoods to keep our communities safe. As sheriff, I oversee the Multma County Sheriff's Office dangerous drug team, one of the primary teams that was involved in this initiative. The dangerous drug team is a multi-jurisdictional team. It's a narcotics task force that is uh sole responsibility around identifying, disrupting, and dismantling drug trafficking organizations. The team is assisted by the Oregon Idaho highintensity drug drug trafficking area program and uh DEA special agent in charge David Reams will expand on this a bit further. In this operation, our deputy sheriffs assigned to this initiative served search warrants in East Portland, resulting in the seizure of drugs, body armor, and firearms. In addition, their investigative efforts led them to search several other locations, resulting in the seizure of over nine pounds of drugs and additional four firearms. They supported Portland Police Bureau's team with monitoring criminal activity and making numerous focused arrests that were targeted toward these investigative efforts and then sending the information off for uh potential criminal charges. Law enforcement does have an important role in combating the fentanyl crisis in our communities and the violence and the crime that it brings with it. And I'm proud also of the work of all of our law enforcement partners, our deputy sheriffs, our police officers, our federal partners in the work that they're doing to help end this crisis in our communities each and every day. The success of these operations also shows the strength of these partnerships and our shared commitment to community safety across all of our communities that we serve. With that, I'll turn it over to District Attorney Nathan Vasquez. Uh, good afternoon. My name is Nathan Vasquez and I am the District Attorney for Multma County. Um, it's good to be here today and to celebrate this effort that we've been through. And it's it is truly an effort of partnership. And I can say that my deputies have been in the precincts on the streets working hard with uh with both Mult County Sheriff, Portland Police, and our federal partners to help make this happen. And this is something that I was elected uh recently and was a priority of mine, and it will remain a priority to mine. is because we are all here today and recognize the immense impact that this has on families, on children, and on our community. Uh those that are suffering from substance abuse disorder, the businesses that have had a hard time dealing with this right on their front their front doorstep. Um and so it is vital that we continue this work. And I'm very happy to say that as I walk around, I see improvements. And I think we should all be hopeful that we're going in the right direction. We have a lot of work ahead of us. Uh by no means is anyone here to say this is over. We are really at the beginning phases of turning this around, but we're working hard and we're making progress. And um what is most important that message that I can put out is that of course from the district attorney's office perspective, our work certainly really begins once these cases come in. Um, but it is important that we are loud and clear when we say those individuals that are out dealing drugs, they're going to be held accountable. We're going to prosecute you. That's my promise to this community. And um, with that, I'm going to turn it over to our our federal partners. And, uh, we'll hear from Doug Olsen. Thanks, Nathan. Good afternoon, everyone. I'm Doug Olsson. I'm the special agent in charge of the FBI's Portland field office. I just want to foot stomp some of the statements made by my partners earlier. Multi- agency operations like this one are by far the most effective way that I know of for law enforcement to combat the fentanyl crisis and increase the safety of our communities. I think we're all driven by a shared commitment to community safety and these joint missions in numerous arrests resulted in numerous arrests and seizures of substantial amounts of fentanyl and narcotics, firearms and cash. In support of this operation, the FBI pulled resources together from across our field office. But without the commitment of our local partners at Multi Multma County Sheriff's Office and PPB, successful operations like this one would not be possible. I also want to thank our federal partners. Our partners at DEA wrote a special Haida grant to get additional overtime funding to support these operations. Lastly, I want to highlight the great support from the Multma County District Attorney's Office and the US Attorney's Office in Oregon. Our prosecutors encourage partnerships between federal, state, and local partners, and I look forward to continuing these efforts in the future. Thank you. And I will be followed by Assistant United States Attorney Scott Karen. Thank you. I'm Scott Karen. I'm an assistant United States Attorney with the United States Attorney's Office here in the District of Oregon. I'm also our opioid coordinator who focuses on fentanyl cases. Fentanyl is, as we all know, an incredibly addictive, destructive, and deadly drug that is absolutely devastating our community. It's safe to say that the toll in terms of death and destruction is as absolutely astronomical. Now, working together with our federal, our state, and our local partners, the US Department of Justice has made the prosecution of fentanyl dealers an absolute priority. And that is a priority that has been echoed by the United States Attorney's Office here in the District of Oregon. The arrest and prosecutions that are being highlighted today as well as the pictures that you're seeing are a direct result of making the prosecution of fentanyl dealers a priority. It's this outstanding collaboration that we hear have here in Oregon between our federal, state, and local partners that is making a positive result in the community in terms of both safety and livability. We want to thank the Portland Police Bureau, the Multma County Sheriff's Office, the DA's office, as well as our federal partners that are here today at FBI and DEA for everything that they do, especially when it becomes to the investigation, prosecution of fentanyl dealers. The results have been absolutely outstanding. Thank you. I'd like to introduce special agent in charge of DEA, David Reams. David, thank you very much. Good afternoon. I'm Dave Reesams. I'm the special agent in charge of the DEA Seattle Field Division, which covers Oregon and the rest of the Pacific Northwest. I'm glad to appear today with our partners at the Portland Police Bureau, the Multma County Sheriff's Office, the FBI, the Multma County District Attorney, and the Attorney's Office for the District of Oregon. The focus of this investigation was to inter interrupt the open air drug markets in Multma County. To do this, it took the partnership of all the people standing here before you. We collaborated fully with each other and shared intelligence with the help of the Oregon Idaho high-intensity drug trafficking area organization, which assisted in the funding, coalition, and dissemination of our collective drug intelligence. Our intelligence indicated that Honduran drug trafficking organizations were working with the Sinaloa cartel, have infiltrated Portland, and are flooding the region with deadly fentanyl and other drugs. Nearly all of those arrested selling drugs were illegally present in the United States. These same traffickers had been exploiting children by using them to sell dangerous drugs. The case today highlights our collective success in bringing some accountability to the criminals who sell poison on our streets. We at DEA consider 2 milligrams of fentanyl to be a potentially lethal dose. The the fentanyl seized by our team in this case could have yielded over one and a half million lethal doses. That's enough to kill everyone in Portland twice. I'm proud that DEA could help our partners bring this surge to a successful conclusion and to save the lives of people in Portland and throughout Oregon. Thank you. Thank you, Sack Reams, and thank you to all our speakers. With that, we have uh some time for Q&A. We just ask that you state your name and who you're with and who your question is for. We'll start with Christina from K2. Christina from K2. Uh thanks so much for doing this. C can you talk about how these numbers compare to other quarters? Like are you holding this press conference now because these numbers are higher than other numbers? Chief, do you want to handle that one? Go ahead. I'm sure I'll have an opportunity. One of the reasons we're holding this news conference is to talk about the great work and the partnership between agencies. Our narcotics and organized crime unit is always out and about Portland doing work on their own. Our NERT teams are always out there doing work on their own. This effort, these missions uh are direct result though of the collaboration between these agencies and that's why we're out here discussing them. I do have some stats I can provide to you um you know right after this of some numbers of the last three or four years of callouts from knock in Portland and we are seeing uh a drastic uh difference in numbers for instance uh the numbers year to date uh right now are down 12% from this time last year uh and that is a direct result of this sort of work but again I can give you some of those stats in a little bit sorry down as in less confiscated drugs than this I think he's talking about overdoses. Less overdoses and call outs. Yes. But in terms of the confiscated materials that you're citing, is it an increase from this time last year or last quarter? This is an increase. Yeah. Increase. Yeah. I just want to emphasize what Mike said. You know, this is is going to be ongoing on the part of the Portland Police Bureau and our partners behind us. This was a specific effort, you know, funded through the Haida program that already been identified. But this does not mean that, you know, we're taking a break in PPB and our our narcotics unit, our central bike squad, all of our officers are trained and committed to continuing the enforcement around this. Mike, you want me to call in somebody? No, go ahead, Deon. Uh Devin Hassel with KJW News. I'm just kind of curious to know kind of like the the pyramid of this. Are you guys cutting off the head of the snake to a major dealer and getting some minor dealers and buyers through this or is this just a bunch of people picked off? It's it's a little of all those things. It's a surge where we target a location and then we address we surge all our resources to try to do all those things to get sin cartel is one of our major targets at DEA and for everyone behind us. So we try to attack the hierarchy as well as the mid-level traffickers, the wholesalers, and then down to the street level dealers. Maxine, um, this is also probably for the DEA. Um, you mentioned or someone mentioned a grant, a Haida grant that was applied for, uh, was it for this partnership over time or it was. Yes, ma'am. And how much was that grant? I would have to get back with the exact number. Okay. and maybe others can. Was there was this just focused downtown and outer east or what areas were you um addressing? It was really all over Portland, but I am told that there were some um bigger emphasis on the Goose Hollow area as well as the Lent neighborhood as well. Julia, I'm curious if anyone could go in a bit more detail about the kind of day-to-day work that the Haida program facilitates that wouldn't be able to be done otherwise. You mentioned search warrants in East Portland. So, Haida derives its funding from the Office of National Drug Control Policy in DC. So every there's there many haidos throughout the United States. So organide haida gives grant money for different targeted programs with different targeted task forces that are engaged in drug work. Um so that's an example of a special grant that they gave our team for this specific investigation. Christina. Yeah. Uh Oregon has changed its laws around not just uh decriminalization, recriminalizing, but also, as I'm sure you're aware, confiscating and prosecuting. Can you talk about how some of this has contributed to this this mission, if it has, and is it making things easier for you guys to do your work in this regard? Chief, he I'm happy to address that. Um, so there were changes um with House Bill 4002 that specifically addressed um, you know, our ability to prosecute individuals that were dealing drugs. And I would say it's had a very positive effect in how we've uh, been able to issue charges and go after those individuals that that are dealing drugs on a day-to-day basis. Of course, I want to echo the sentiments of the others, which is, you know, yes, we're looking at the street level dealers, but we are always looking at every um kind of level in that hierarchy and trying to go as high as we can to have the biggest impact we possibly can. But, but absolutely, yes, that's had a positive impact. Can you go into any detail of how it's had a positive impact and what's changed? So the the very kind of the easiest way to describe it is that before when we encountered an individual with a large quantity of of controlled substances uh we had a difficult time saying just based on that quantity that they were dealing although everyone involved certainly knew that uh the change in the law allows us that even when there's not a specific hand-to-hand transaction but they're carrying large amounts of drugs they have the packaging material all of those types of things we can now go after them and prosecute them. It was what was typically called or previously called a void delivery. So that change in the law allows us to be a little more expansive in in who we're able to prosecute. The law also allowed for more confiscation and this would be at the policing level. Has that contributed I mean just this rec criminalization as I understand it allowed you to actually confiscate and look through stuff whereas before that wasn't possible. Can you talk about if that's helped? Yeah. So just on a street level in terms of like our you know officers, it does give them more latitude in being able to confiscate, search, make arrest because it's now criminalized again. So we are taking people into custody. We are partnering with Mult County and the deflection center trying to utilize that as much as possible so that we're not constantly adding to the burden of the criminal justice system. But we're also finding that many of these people that we arrest for possession have additional charges or uh too many drugs or you know etc etc that might prevent them from being eligible for deflection but we have seen certainly an increased number of arrests which does allow us to conduct a greater search and do more seizures in that regard. Does it eventually lead to more higher level? Yeah, as I mentioned earlier, you know, we have a narcotics unit that specializes in overdose investigations as well as larger crime organizations, but we have been utilizing them in partnership with that street level work. So, we take somebody in custody maybe for a minor possession, but they're willing to talk to us about where they bought the dogs from, and we can begin to work up the ladder. And that's where we need the support of these folks, you know, when we can get to the next level, the next level, the next level, and bring in additional resources. How much would you say has this law change contributed to these increased numbers that you're seeing in terms of confiscation and decrease in overdose? Yeah, I can't speak to specific of that because I don't have the numbers. I can speak anecdotally to the to the field and what we're experiencing. As Mike said, we're seeing a decrease in reported overdose deaths to ppb. Anyway, um we're seeing um you know, significant amount of seizures on the street and you know, we watch the price of up and down of fentanyl. watch, you know, the availability of it, the, you know, accessibility, etc., etc., but, uh, we'd have to get you the specific numbers and comparisons. Maxine, did you have another? Uh, have you received any tips on the parents who are, um, accused in their son's fentanyl nonfatal overdose and what could they face for criminal mistreatment? Well, um, I can go ahead. So, we are actively seeking those tips. I don't know of which ones have come in yet or not, but with those particular parents, um there's there's kind of two big parts. One is that uh their failure to appear will automatically trigger greater sentences. I think the mother is now facing and will receive I want to be clear, will receive five years in prison. That was the deal that if she didn't show up, she's going to get 5 years in prison. Uh the father is going to get 80 months and my math tells me that's that's somewhere north of six years. Uh but don't put me on the spot on that one. the uh but I want to be clear the other part is that my office is going to pursue uh felony failure to appear charges in addition to those um prison sanctions. Had they been in custody at all? They had not. So you know they were arraigned a while back and you know with the changes in bail laws they were not in custody. So they were out of custody. They plead guilty. They were scheduled to turn themselves in. They failed to do so. But specifically, um, you know, I'm very proud of my deputy DA that she was had the forethought to say, "Look, if you don't show up, here's there's going to be extra consequences." So, she built that in and they are going to face some extra consequences for that. Yeah. Joey Baker, Coin 6 News. Gabe, you had mentioned those Honduran drug traffickers, the Sinoa cartel. Are these numbers all connected to that or are these uh total first quarter numbers that include that? So these numbers are only with this specific surge, not not holistically. Okay. So they can all be attributed to that operation operating in Portland. That is my understanding that these numbers we're providing today are just for this operation. Okay. And for a little more context, this is all happening here. Do we have any idea how far away these drugs were going? Were they getting sent all over the country out of Portland? Was this something happening just here in town? It it mostly is for the consumption of Portland. and Portland does source other smaller towns in Oregon and you know Idaho like that. So it's it's not a major distribution hub but it's a a sort of regional distribution hub. And then taking a larger step back how do these numbers in this bus compare to maybe buss in the past or you know big takeaways uh in the past if anybody can speak to that. I think we'll have to get those for you from Mike will get those for you and send them over. Yeah. I see a couple more. Deon, you ask 46 arrests or is there a way to break it down like, hey, this is over the course of three different operations or 26 different operations. How much are how many are facing federal versus local charges? Eric, was it five six operations? Uh, there were a dozen operations. It was over over the span of the whole month. Multiple operations planned for the whole month. Some small oneoff days, some larger, some more. So over the span of month approximately a dozen operations missions individual. He's saying a month but and you say a quarter. A lot of these were done in February. Uh yes. Yes. It just took time to get everyone in the same room. Spring breaks schedules leaders that sort of thing. Local charges. Yeah. We don't have that breakdown right now. No. Christina. Couple more. Seems like we're seeing a lot more instances where kids are picking up fentanyl, fatal fatal overdoses or just these criminal mistreatment charges. Do we have any indication that there has been an increase in these types of instances? Um, and are you looking at does Oregon need a law specific to this type of situation where there's an infant involved? Is it something that you're looking at with the legislature? Nathan, do we need a law or do you have a law? Um I would say there are certainly laws in place and it is um it's a situation where we charge criminal mistreatment for this. Uh there are um additional other potential charges sometimes um you know there are reckless assaults, things of that nature that can be changed. Um am I always open to looking for new and creative ways to hold people accountable? Absolutely. Um but I'll say that with the laws we have available, we are utilizing them and we are doing that to hold people accountable. We've had a few different instances. I know that one big area that we talk about and we partner very closely particularly with um with our US attorney here uh Mr. Scott Karen is on the issues around what we call LIN bias. So those are overdose deaths that happens to children as well. Um when I talk about I'm talking about children kind of generally in the 11 to 18 year old range. Um Oregon currently does not have a lin bias kind of approach to that. It's something we have requested in the legislature before. If you're looking at an area that is lacking in in Oregon state laws, I would say that's one and it's one that we we've talked about, we've pushed for in the past and we'll continue to seek out. Um, you know, it is available in within the uh US attorney's office and it's something that at times we are certainly working very closely with them to seek those as well. And in terms of the increase in these instances, have you been tracking that? Is there an increase in instances where there's children fatally overdosing? I think we'll have to get those. We'd have to get with our strategic services division on that. see spec you're talking about like maybe the people under age 18 or something like that. Yeah, we'll we can get you those numbers and see if we can break that out. Last question. Let's go. Heather Heather Roberts with KXL for the federal partners. Is this something that you're looking to then model in other parts of Oregon, Bend, Medford, those other areas where we know fentanyl is being trafficked through to get to those outlying areas or is that something that's already being done? You want me to talk about? Yeah, it's it's something that we do across the state, but we do it to different degrees based on the on the personnel resources and the and the the monetary resources we have in those locations. So, the idea of a surge is not a is not a new thing. It's a very effective thing, but keep in mind, every time one of these agencies surges resources, we're taking something away from something else that's really important. And those differences I say are are more exaggerated when you go to a place in the eastern part of the state or down in the southern part of the state where they have even more scarce resources. So um we'd like to do more of these surges and those and those surges cost money for overtime and then we also have to sometimes move in additional resources to to support those departments. Question last one just a simple yes or no. Any of these 46 under the age of 18 are the all adults? leave all don'ts. Yeah. If that if that's not the case, I'll let I'll let you know. I want to thank all of our speakers behind us. Uh our partner our partners, our agency leaders. As I mentioned, it's incredibly difficult to get all these folks in the same room just based on everyone's schedules. So, I want to thank them for taking the time uh and and really thank you guys for coming out here and sharing this message that uh you know, we still have um a drug epidemic, a fentanyl epidemic on our streets and we will continue to work with our partners uh to address that. Uh with that, I will be pushing uh as soon as I get back upstairs to my desk uh the uh official news release with some additional pictures and then we'll have this uh press conference in its entirety on our YouTube channel in the next couple of hours. Uh with that I want to thank everyone for coming. Thank you. [Music]