Oregon Traffic Stops Help Bring Down Washington Drug Ring Moving Fentanyl From Los Angeles to Seattle

The Oregon State Police and Portland Police Bureau were instrumental in an investigation that led to the exposure and dissolution of a major drug trafficking ring operating out of Washington state.

The case came under the spotlight yesterday when the leader of the drug trafficking ring, 25-year-old Hector Duran Aldaco, was sentenced to 130 months in federal prison by a federal judge in Washington state. Aldaco pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute controlled substances and the use of a firearm in a drug trafficking crime.

A Staggering Quantity of Controlled Substances

Before passing sentence, U.S. District Judge Kymberly K. Evanson referred to the 85 kilograms of methamphetamine, 30 kilograms of fentanyl, and 2.5 kilograms of cocaine trafficked by the gang as a ‘staggering quantity of controlled substances.’

Investigations into the drug trafficking ring began in December 2022 after Aldaco was identified as a large-scale fentanyl distributor. Using physical and electronic surveillance, agents determined that Aldaco was supplied by a Mexican drug trafficking organization (DTO).

Aldaco coordinated the transport of the narcotics from Los Angeles to Seattle, where he worked with co-conspirators to distribute the drugs.

According to a press statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Western District of Washington, the DTO often used rental cars to transport the drugs but changed to buses after several traffic stops ended in the seizure of large amounts of narcotics, including in areas of Oregon.

Oregon Law Enforcement Seized 73 Kilograms of Meth and Fentanyl in Two Traffic Stops

Oregon State Police seized 28 pounds of methamphetamine in a traffic stop in June 2023, and a further 30 kilograms of fentanyl pills and 15 kilograms of methamphetamine in another traffic stop in November 2023.

The drug seizures at traffic stops in Oregon continued into 2024, when 7.5 kilograms of fentanyl pills abandoned at a bus station by one of Aldaco’s associates were seized in April of that year.