Hours before a Washington County woman died of a suspected drug overdose last week, she shared an Uber ride with her son to downtown Portland and gave him $200 to buy fentanyl in the area of the boarded-up Washington Center that had been the site of an open-air drug market earlier this spring, according to a federal affidavit.
The son said he took the cash to buy drugs from their usual source, who they knew as “Jose,” near Southwest Fourth Avenue and Washington Street, according to the affidavit. They had bought fentanyl from him for the past three to four months, the affidavit said.
After the deal went down Monday night, the mother and son grabbed another Uber ride back home with about 100 pills and $100 worth of fentanyl powder, Guy Gino, a federal Homeland Security Investigations Agent, wrote in the affidavit.
Early the next morning, the son found his 60-year-old mother unconscious in their apartment in the 6600 block of West Burnside Street in Washington County.
He called 911, and sheriff’s deputy Nolan Hansen responded to their home at 5:43 a.m. Tuesday, and initiated a death investigation from the presumed fentanyl overdose death, the affidavit said.
The woman who died was identified Sunday as Stephanie E. Davis Carmen, according to Washington County Sheriff’s Detective Mark Povolny, a sheriff’s spokesperson.
Investigators from the Westside Interagency Narcotics Team had the son set up another buy from his drug source. He arranged by text message to meet the seller at Southeast 82nd Avenue and Stark Street about 10:40 a.m. last Wednesday, according to the affidavit.
When the alleged dealer arrived, Portland police moved in to arrest him, Gino wrote.
“100% that’s the guy I bought from on Monday,” the victim’s son told investigators, according to the affidavit.
The man who the mother and son knew as “Jose” was detained and identified as Manuel Velasquez-Estrejo, 38.
A police search of his backpack turned up 1,000 multi-colored counterfeit oxycodone pills imprinted with “M30,” on them, about two ounces of a white powder, a motel room key and a fake California ID card for “Carlos Murillo,” bearing Velasquez-Estrejo’s photo, the affidavit said.
These pills were seized from Room 250 of the Studio 6 Extended Stay Motel on Northeast 82nd Avenue as part of the overdose death investigation, according to a federal affidavit.Court record
Police tracked the key to the Studio 6 Extended Stay Motel room on Northeast 82nd Avenue where Velasquez-Estrejo had been staying, the affidavit said.
Investigators did surveillance on the motel Room 250 and arrested two men they saw walk out of the room.
An initial search of the room, which investigators said was obtained by consent from the two occupants, turned up 10,000 more multi-colored counterfeit oxycodone pills made of suspected fentanyl, according to the affidavit.
Police obtained a warrant to search the room.
Inside the room, investigators located 11,295 multi-colored counterfeit M30 oxycodone pills made of fentanyl, more than 6 pounds of fentanyl powder, 310 grams of suspected methamphetamine and about $11,700 in cash.
Along with Velasquez-Estrejo, also arrested were Jorge Rivera-Nunez, 27, and Dennis Palma-Hurbina, 23, all of Honduras, on federal allegations. They’re each accused of possessing with intent to distribute fentanyl and engaging in a conspiracy to possess and distribute fentanyl.
They remain in custody on a federal hold in the Columbia County Jail on the federal allegations.
— Maxine Bernstein
Email mbernstein@oregonian.com; 503-221-8212
Follow on Twitter @maxoregonian
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