Two men were arrested last week in east Vancouver after police recovered 13.8 pounds of heroin worth $650,000 and $90,000 cash during a drug trafficking investigation.
The Portland Police Bureau had been looking into an alleged drug trafficking organization operating in the metro area and got information March 19 that led them to a Multnomah County, Ore., apartment complex.
They followed a Nissan Maxima, which left the complex and drove to Fisher’s Mill Apartments in east Vancouver, 1000 S.E. 160th Ave., according to documents filed in Clark County Superior Court. The Nissan parked, while a maroon Lexus followed it inside the complex and drove around a few times before pulling into a garage.
The Nissan’s driver, later identified by police as 19-year-old Jesus Alejandro Vega-Cazarez, opened the car’s trunk and pulled out a white laundry basket containing clothing, the court documents said. He went inside the garage where the Lexus was parked and the garage door closed. About five minutes later, Vega-Cazarez returned to his car and put what appeared to be the same laundry basket inside his trunk, court documents said.
The Lexus drove out of the garage and the complex, along with the Nissan. Both vehicles drove into a shopping complex; the Lexus circled around before getting back onto Southeast Mill Plain Boulevard and driving west.
Around noon, Portland detectives called Vancouver police Detective Rodrigo Osorio and asked him to stop the Lexus. He pulled over the Lexus, driven by 42-year-old Jose Luis Mariscal Gonzalez, at Southeast Mill Plain Boulevard and Hearthwood Boulevard, court documents said. Gonzalez is also known as Jose Mariscal Gonzales, court documents said.
Meanwhile, Portland police officers Chris Devlin and Michael Jones stopped the Nissan nearby. Vega-Cazarez and Gonzalez each consented to a search of their vehicles, court documents said. Although a Portland K-9 unit sniffed the Lexus and positively alerted to drugs being inside, no drugs were found during the initial search.
In the Nissan, they found about $90,000 wrapped in cellophane that was concealed inside the clothing in the laundry basket, court documents said.
Gonzalez consented to a second search knowing police may have to remove parts of the Lexus. Inside the car’s frame, police found 13.8 pounds of heroin separated into nine different packages wrapped in electrical tape that were tied up with rope, court documents said. That amount of heroin translates to about 1,251,914 individual doses, the Portland Police Bureau said.
Gonzalez was booked into the Clark County Jail on suspicion of possessing heroin with intent to deliver, while Vega-Cazarez was booked on suspicion of criminal solicitation to commit possession of heroin with intent to deliver.
Gonzalez had been in the local area for a few days at the time of the arrest, but was last known to be living in Whittier, Calif., court documents said. Vega-Cazarez is from Portland.
They’re being held in lieu of $100,000 bail each. They’re both scheduled to appear in court on April 3.
