68,000 fentanyl pills seized during DEA drug bust in Spokane

SPOKANE, Wash. -- Three Spokane men are facing federal drug charges for thousands of fentanyl pills and other narcotics seized in a home.

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, DEA agents were investigating local drug trafficking June 26 and identified a Toyota Corolla as a suspected vehicle used.

Investigators saw two suspects, Jose Roman Lizarrago-Gerardo and Osvaldo Guadalupe Soto-Orduno, in the Corolla carrying a black bag into a home and returning back to the vehicle.

Law enforcement officers later pulled the vehicle over and located several large bundles of cash during a search.

Officers then saw a third suspect, Jose Efrain Gonzalez-Rodriguez, and another man in an Acura and pulled that vehicle over. Officers searched the vehicle and found approximately 7,000 fentanyl pills and two pounds of suspected methamphetamine.

The U.S. Attorney's Office says law enforcement searched the home and located 61,000 fentanyl pills, three pounds of meth, over a pound of cocaine, heroin, and multiple firearms.

Lizarrago-Gerardo, Soto-Orduno, and Gonzalez-Rodriguez were all charged with conspiracy to distribute meth and fentanyl.

“The fentanyl epidemic is taking lives at an unprecedented pace,” said U.S. Attorney Vanessa Waldref.  “My office is committed to working with our with our law enforcement partners to remove large quantities of deadly drugs from the streets and to disrupt drug networks.”

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