drugs

Francisco Aguirre, a local labor activist originally from El Salvador, took refuge Friday in a Northeast Portland church...

"I've been a leader in this community for so many years," Aguirre said. "I'm part of this community, and this is where I belong. This is where I want to stay."

Aguirre was deported to El Salvador in 2000 after a conviction for drug trafficking offenses, ICE said in a statement. Aguirre came to the agency's attention again in August after he was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence...

He acknowledged that he was deported 14 years ago, but declined to comment further..

Aguirre was involved in the Workers' Organizing Committee that went on to found Voz Workers' Rights Education Project, nonprofit organization that mostly helps male Latino immigrants find work in Portland. He currently serves as the MLK Jr. Worker Center coordinator for the group.

Churches elsewhere in the country have been offering sanctuary to illegal immigrants...

ICE agents do not make arrests in sensitive locations...

Aguirre, a father of three, said he plans to stay at the church for as "long as it takes."

"We all make mistakes," he said. "We all have the right to fix those mistakes."

  Read more about Portland activist seeks asylum in church to avoid deportation

The current ongoing immigration surge, call it an invasion, across the United States of America’s border with Mexico by persons who have illegally entered the country is really old news revisited to those who have been victimized of foreign national criminals in Oregon.

An unpublished July 1, 2014 report from the Oregon Department of Corrections (DOC) indicated there were 1,099 foreign nationals (criminal aliens) incarcerated in the state’s prison system...

What follows is a list of 15 Oregon counties whose County Circuit Courts adjudicated cases that sent the most criminal aliens (95.4 percent) to serve time in DOC prisons:

- 267 Multnomah, 24.3 percent of alien prisoners;
- 264 Marion, 24.0 percent of alien prisoners;
- 186 Washington, 16.9 percent of alien prisoners;
- 76 Clackamas, 6.9 percent of alien prisoners;
- 57 Lane, 5.2 percent of alien prisoners...

The types of crimes, the level of violence, being committed by aliens who have illegally entered the country against the state’s residents are the type crimes one might read about in an international newspaper or view on a television news program covering Mexico or third-world counties located in Central and South America or the Caribbean.

Here is how the 1,099 criminal aliens currently in the DOC prison population violently, brutally and mercilessly victimized the residents of this state:

- 199 sex abuses, 18.1 percent of alien crimes;
- 172 rapes, 15.6 percent of alien crimes;
- 161 drugs, 14.6 percent of alien crimes;
- 145 homicides, 13.2 percent of alien crimes;
- 103 assaults, 9.4 percent of alien crimes;
- 93 sodomies, 8.5 percent of alien crimes;
- 68 robberies, 6.2 percent of alien crimes;
- 44 kidnappings, 4.0 percent of alien crimes...

Focusing on the Americas and Caribbean, 976 of the 1,099 criminal aliens (88.8 percent) in the DOC prison system self-declared their citizenship from the following nations:

- 884 Mexico, 80.4 percent of prisoners;
- 34 Guatemala, 3.1 percent of prisoners;
- 15 El Salvador, 1.4 percent of prisoners;
- 11 Honduras, 1.0 percent of prisoners;
- 11 Cuba, 1.0 percent of prisoners...

Another element of foreign national crime that has affected the residents of this state is the cost to incarcerate criminal aliens in the state’s prisons; 1,099 alien prisoners cost the state’s taxpayers $34,930,835.80 per year.

Unfortunately for Oregonians, this seemingly unchecked wave of foreign national crime and violence has gone on in the state under watch of recalcitrant Washington D.C. politicians like Senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden along with Representatives Earl Blumenauer, Suzanne Bonamici, Kurt Schrader, Peter DeFazio and Greg Walden; politicians whose political parties during their elected tenure in office at one time controlled all three elected branches of government (The Presidency, The Senate and The House of Representatives).

These congressional representatives have done nothing legislatively that has been passed and signed into law by President Barack Obama to stop the invasion of criminal aliens preying on the residents of this state.

With leadership comes responsibility, they as a collective group of law makers, it would be fair to say, have the blood of those victimized by alien criminals on their hands.

Oregon’s registered voters during Oregon’s November 4, 2014 General Election will have a chance to replace six of the seven politicians who have failed to protect citizens and resident aliens from the invasion of foreign national criminals, only Senator Wyden is immune from the voters’ wrath during this election cycle.

Along with the possibility of replacing their congressional representation, voters in the state will also have the unique opportunity in the fall to show their members of congress leadership on immigration legislation by voting “No” on Measure 88; legislation that would grant Driver Cards for those who cannot prove legal presence in the United States; legislation if it were to pass that could send a new wave of foreign national criminals into the state.

David Olen Cross of Salem writes on immigration issues and foreign national crime. He can be reached at docfnc@yahoo.com. Read more about Oregonians are affected by criminal invasion

Federal authorities and local police have snuffed out a roughly 5,000-plant marijuana grow about six miles south of Ashland in the Neil Creek drainage.

A U.S. Forest Service employee discovered the massive growing operation while hunting in January, according to a complaint filed Aug. 25 in the U.S. District Court of Medford.

Humberto Salgado-Salgado, 36, and Juan Albert Lopez-Moroyoqui, 50, two alleged illegal immigrants from Mexico, were arrested at the grow site when the Jackson County Sheriff's Department SWAT team raided the area on Aug. 18, the complaint states.

Forest Service Special Agent Robert D. Caruthers Jr. led the investigation and filed the complaint.

In the complaint, he said the site appeared to be a "Mexican style Drug Trade Organization grow."

While investigating the area in January, Caruthers found a marijuana drying area, a well-developed campsite, several terraced areas with plant holes, drip irrigation lines, open fertilizer bags and a garbage pit, the complaint states. He also recovered dried marijuana plants with attached buds, the complaint states.

From May until the August raid, Caruthers and county authorities kept tabs on the site, observing as people moved in and its plants grew and matured to about five feet tall, the complaint states.

The site is believed to have been in use since at least 2012, the complaint states.

While observing the site between May and the raid, Caruthers said he saw who he believes was Salgado-Salgado and Lopez-Moroyoqui dressed in camouflage tending to plants at the grow site, the complaint states.

According to an indictment filed Thursday in U.S. District Court of Medford, both men have been charged with conspiracy to manufacture marijuana and manufacturing marijuana.

Lopez-Moroyoqui has also been charged with being an illegal immigrant, having returned to the United States after being deported following a drug-related conviction, according to a press release from the Oregon Department of Justice.

Salgado-Salgado told Caruthers he was from Morelos, Mexico, and that the men had been living at the grow site for about three and a half months after having been transported there from Santa Rosa, Calif., by a person in a van, the complaint states.

"They had been given marijuana seeds in a bag and were initially walked into the grow site location," the complaint states.

Salgado-Salgado told Caruthers the men were expecting to get about a third of the value of the harvested marijuana, the complaint states.

The men are scheduled to be arraigned next week in U.S. District Court in Medford, court records show. Read more about Big illegal marijuana garden busted in forest outside Ashland

A 35-year-old man pleaded guilty to the delivery of heroin that resulted in the death of a 21-year-old Laurin Putnam, of Keizer.

Sergio Quezada-Lopez, of Mexico, appeared before a U.S. District Judge Monday and entered a guilty plea to conspiracy to distribute heroin that resulted in death, according to the Department of Justice.

Quezada-Lopez is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 1. The maximum sentence is life in prison and there is a mandatory minimum of 20 years.

Putnam's father Ron said after his daughter's death that he would see things through until the end. Now he is one step closer.

"I'm glad to see that it's finally coming to fruition," Ron Putnam said.

The investigation into Putnam's death began in April 2012 when police officers found her dead inside her Keizer residence. The Oregon State Medical Examiner confirmed her death was caused by a heroin overdose.

In the four days following her death, officials made a number of arrests and held searches in Marion, Washington and Multnomah counties, and Vancouver, Wash.

An investigation allowed authorities to identify the final suspect in the distribution chain. From there, investigators continued to identify people involved and eventually moved six levels up through the chain of distributors to Quezada-Lopez, the DOJ said.

He is charged with large-scale conspiracy regarding distribution of heroin in Oregon, Washington, Colorado and Nevada. He was in charge of a network of houses in Portland and Vancouver, Wash. that were used to stash drugs and received orders for heroin, then direct its delivery.

Others involved in the conspiracy collected payments in cash and then transferred money to Quezada-Lopez, the DOJ said.

When officials searched the house, they found large quantities of heroin, along with methamphetamine and cocaine. They also found documentation, drug ledgers, weapons, packaging material and $20,000. In one location, a drug ledger contained Quezada-Lopez's fingerprints and a document had his picture. Officers listened to a phone conversation in which he described an amount of heroin to be delivered.

He was arrested April 20, 2012, less than a week after Putnam died.

Also arrested around the same time as Quezada-Lopez were Braulio Acosta Mendoza, Jose Romo Gonzalez, Jose Aldan Soto and Julian Hernandez Castillo.

Court records during early proceedings of the defendants said that the operation "yielded a yearly gross profit of over one hundred thousand dollars."

"It's nice to get some closure. I do feel a sense of relief that things are finally starting to falling in"to place," Ron Putnam said. "Ultimately I'll never have her back."

The Drug Enforcement Administration led the investigation, mainly through its Salem task force, along with Salem and Keizer police departments, the Marion County Sheriff's Office, Oregon State Police and other agencies around Oregon and Washington. Read more about Man guilty of delivering heroin that killed Keizer woman

With 40 years of law enforcement experience, Morrow County Sheriff Kenneth Matlack has a vested interest in making sure that those who cross the southern border are here to better their lives without breaking the law.

“There are many people who cross over the border and are hardworking people who are trying to make a better life for themselves,” Matlack said. “But there are a lot of criminals who come over here and are still being criminals, and when they’re deported, they’re just coming back over and keep committing crimes.”

Matlack said he has noticed a trend of the same illegal immigrant criminals coming back to the states just a few months after being deported, and he wanted to see for himself how the border could be letting so many people in. So he and five other sheriffs visited the Rio Grande Valley and the Texas State Police Border Patrol.

“(Officers) are doing the absolute best they can with what’s available, but patrols are overwhelmed,” Matlack said.

Matlack was impressed with their security, but border patrol and Texas State Police are too thinned out to properly cover the border, he said. And if an illegal immigrant is caught, they have to put them through a detention center that is also stretched too thin.

At the detention center Matlack visited, the McAllen Border Station would process about 250 immigrants in a day while he was there.

“In the facilities they break them apart into different groups, but they keep the families together,” Matlack said. “It’s similar to a county jail. There’s open spaces, cafeteria and an exercise area, but it’s not really designed to hold that many people.”

Matlack’s trip to the south was funded by the Federation for American Immigration Reform. FAIR is a non-profit organization that seeks to eliminate illegal immigration and increase border security.

“This is the first time we’ve done something like this,” FAIR Press Secretary Anna Giaritelli said. “But it’s something we’ve wanted to do so that people can see for themselves what’s happening.”

When Matlack would sit in on briefings during his visit, he said the primary topic was seeking out and infiltrating the Mexican drug cartels.

“What happens at the border doesn’t stay at the border,” Matlack said. “The drugs that are crossing through there are spreading throughout the states. It’s a fight every day for the patrols to try and track down these cartels.”

Once a person is processed, within 48 hours they’re taken to Health and Human Services shelters and they’ll have their deportation trial. Among those 250 are a mix of people seeking a fresh start or family member already in the U.S., but also criminals and people involved with cartels. The process of finding out who’s who among the crowd is an exhaustive and imprecise process.

“It’s frustrating to see all the drug activity that’s coming from the border because it’s not secure,” Matlack said. “I’m not looking to over-simplify things, but something needs to be done to secure things, and it has to be a permanent fix, not a quick one.” Read more about Morrow County sheriff visits the U.S., Mexico border

At 10 a.m. on Aug. 12, 2014 Linn County Detectives arrested Louis Alfonso Arellano-Arellano, 47, of Yakima, Wash., while he was tending to a large scale marijuana grow operation, according to a news release from Linn County Sheriff Bruce Riley.

The grow operation was located on private timber land owned by Weyerhaeuser Company Inc. in the Lacomb area.

Detectives determined Arellano-Arellano was living in and tending to the marijuana grow site. This large marijuana growing operation caused damage to the surrounding land and to the local streams by the cutting of small trees and brush, depositing trash, and littering the area with chemicals and irrigation tubing.

Detectives seized 1,874 marijuana plants from three different growing plots. The grow site contained a hybrid marijuana strain. This type of marijuana plant produces a much smaller and thinner plant by maturing at a faster rate, making the growing season much shorter. The estimated value of the marijuana plants if allowed to reach maturity is approximately $1.8 million.

Arellano-Arellano was lodged in the Linn County Jail and was charged with Unlawful Manufacture of Marijuana, Unlawful Possession of Marijuana, Criminal Mischief II, Criminal Trespass II, and Littering in or near waterways.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement determined Arellano-Arellano is in the United States illegally and therefore has placed a hold on him.

  Read more about Linn County detectives find large marijuana grow

Omar Martinez Rodriguez showed such little sophistication in drug trafficking that he stuffed 22 pounds of methamphetamine worth close to $1 million into two coolers for the road trip from California to Oregon, his lawyers said.

...Martinez Rodriguez was just a bit player – a courier, not a kingpin.

...sentencing him to more than 17 years in prison. The federal judge said he believed Martinez Rodriguez was planning to sell the meth – some 40,000 doses worth, according to prosecutors.

"You didn't have a chance to capitalize on it, and that's the only thing that saved you from being even more involved as a distributor," Jones said in U.S. District Court in Portland. He noted Martinez Rodriguez' previous assault convictions as well as the undocumented immigrant's illegal re-entry to the United States just months before his September 2013 arrest. "It sounds like you didn't learn anything from going to prison," he said.

Martinez Rodriguez must also serve five years of supervised release, and if he is deported must first get approval from governmental agencies before he may return to the United States.

Martinez Rodriguez was targeted in an investigation, and an informant made arrangements to buy meth from him, according to the government's sentencing memorandum. Authorities learned that his phone was in California, and they began following him after he entered Oregon.

Police conducted a traffic stop around Salem and found the drugs in the coolers ...

  Read more about Transport of nearly $1 million worth of meth lands Canby man 17+ years in prison