Drug agents bust alleged cocaine trafficker during sale outside bar on Bend’s south end, raid his truck, parent’s house

(Update: Adding video, interview with Vander Kamp)

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) – Drug agents wrapped up a months-long investigation of a Bend man who allegedly dealt cocaine in or around bars on Bend’s south end with his arrest Thursday night while he was making a sale in the parking lot of one such South Highway 97 establishment.

The Central Oregon Drug Enforcement Team, assisted by the Bend Police Department, completed its surveillance operation with the arrest of the Bend man and raid of his parent’s home on Mel Court, where he’d been temporarily staying, Sergeant Kent Vander Kamp said.

Drug agents late last year identified the man as being “involved in the substantial distribution of cocaine in and around bars located in the south Bend area,” Vander Kamp said in a news release Friday evening.

After a surveillance operation, CODE detectives detained the dealer and an alleged customer around 10 p.m. Thursday in the parking lot of a bar in the 61000 block of South Highway 97. Vander Kamp said the alleged customer was cited for drug possession and released.

The detectives secured a search warrant for the suspect’s pickup truck and his parent’s home, believed to be his temporary home.

The search of his Ford F-150 turned up “a commercial quantity of cocaine,” Vander Kamp wrote, “along with additional evidence confirming his involvement in cocaine distribution crimes.” Other “non-drug-related evidence” was found at his parent’s home, he added.

The alleged cocaine dealer was lodged in the Deschutes County Jail on drug distribution, manufacture and possession charges.

“The investigation remains active,” the sergeant said, “with additional suspects identified and further arrests anticipated.”

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