Kingpin behind Ice Breaker 2 drug enterprise pleads guilty
A man who investigators described as the kingpin of the county’s second-largest known drug operation has entered a plea of guilty as part of a negotiated agreement with the prosecution.
Rogelio Gonzalez-Martinez, 37, of Lebanon, pleaded guilty in Benton County Circuit Court on Monday to one count of racketeering and to five counts related to dealing methamphetamine. Dismissed in exchange were remaining charges of racketeering and of dealing meth, cocaine and heroin.
His sentencing hearing has not yet been scheduled.
Prosecutors from the Benton County District Attorney’s Office and the Oregon Department of Justice, and Gonzalez-Martinez’s defense will argue his potential sentence before Circuit Court Judge Matthew Donohue.
Gonzalez-Martinez and 26 others were arrested in March 2012 after area law-enforcement agencies served more than three dozen search warrants as part of a drug bust, which they dubbed Icebreaker 2.
His brother — Abel Gonzalez-Martinez — and Juventino Santibanez-Castro, who investigators identified as the other top men in the operation, were each sentenced to 10 years in prison last December.
The enterprise involved bringing in “substantial amounts” of cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine from Mexico for distribution throughout Oregon, according to court testimony.
The raid came almost five years to the day after another huge drug bust, dubbed Ice Breaker, which remains the largest criminal sweep in Benton County’s history. Some of the people arrested in the Ice Breaker 2 raid had ties to the first Ice Breaker case, authorities said.
