(The Center Square) – Francisco Moncada, 28, a fentanyl and firearms trafficker with residences in Portland, Oregon, and Vancouver, Washington, received a 108-month federal prison sentence plus five years of supervised release this week according to the U.S. Attorney for the District of Oregon.
Special agents from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration Portland District Office started investigating a drug trafficking organization that operated in Oregon and Washington state in October 2021.
Sixth months later, investigators discovered that Moncada had communicated with several area drug traffickers about fentanyl sourcing.
Law enforcement officers stopped a car used by Moncada and his associates that was transporting 15 pounds of fentanyl on April 18, 2022. Less than two weeks later, law enforcement stopped Moncada again and seized 10 more pounds of fentanyl. A few days after that, investigators also found out that Moncada instructed other members of the organization to sell an assortment of firearms.
Investigators searched Moncada’s residences in May 2022 and seized seven firearms and two pounds of fentanyl. From October 2021 to August 2022, investigators also found “50 pounds of fentanyl, 40 pounds of methamphetamine, and smaller quantities of cocaine, heroin and marijuana from Moncada and his associates,” the release said. Law enforcement made 16 arrests connected to their organization.
Moncada and three other people were charged by federal criminal complaint in May 2022 with conspiring with one another to possess and possession with intent to distribute fentanyl.
One month later, a federal grand jury in Portland returned a six-count indictment that charged Moncada and eight others for conspiring with each other to distribute fentanyl.
Moncada also got charged with “possessing with intent to distribute fentanyl and possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime,” the release said.
On December 20, 2023, Moncada became the organization’s 10th member to plead guilty in December 2023. He also became the seventh member to receive a federal prison sentence. Four other people await their sentencing, and another is a fugitive.
The sentence comes as Oregon Governor Tina Kotek signed a bill recriminalizing drug possession in Oregon after it had been decriminalized by the voter-approved Measure 110 in 2020. With drugs decriminalized, Oregon saw a large increase in drug overdose deaths, particularly from fentanyl.
