U.S. Attorney’s Office – District of Oregon release – PORTLAND, Ore.—An Arizona man was sentenced to federal prison today after he and an accomplice were stopped traveling in a vehicle with 12,000 fentanyl pills on Highway 26 near Government Camp, Oregon. Jeray Lashawn Jessie, 32, a former Portland resident living in Phoenix, Arizona, was sentenced to 60 months in federal prison and five years’ supervised release. According to court documents, in March 2021, as part of a larger drug trafficking investigation being conducted by the FBI and Clackamas County Interagency Task Force (CCITF), law enforcement officers stopped a rental car traveling westbound on Highway 26 near Government Camp. Jessie and an accomplice were the sole occupants of the vehicle traveling from Arizona to Portland. Investigators searched the vehicle pursuant to a warrant and located 12,000 counterfeit oxycodone pills containing fentanyl concealed in a backpack in the vehicle’s trunk. A subsequent search of Jessie’s cell phone revealed messages related to drug trafficking. On August 17, 2021, a federal grand jury in Portland returned an indictment charging Jessie with possessing with intent to distribute fentanyl. On August 28, 2022, he pleaded guilty. This case was investigated by the FBI and CCITF. It was prosecuted by Peter D. Sax, Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Oregon. CCITF, led by the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office, works to disrupt and dismantle drug trafficking organizations operating in Clackamas County, and reduce illegal drugs and related crimes throughout the community. The task force is comprised of members of the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office, Canby Police Department, Oregon State Police, HSI, and FBI. This case is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) investigation. OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level drug traffickers, money launderers, gangs, and transnational criminal organizations that threaten the United States by using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach that leverages the strengths of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies against criminal networks. Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid 80 to 100 times more powerful than morphine and 30 to 50 times more powerful than heroin. A 3-milligram dose of fentanyl—a few grains of the substance—is enough to kill an average adult male. The availability of illicit fentanyl in Oregon has caused a dramatic increase in overdose deaths throughout the state.
