(The CenterSquare) - Orbin Alfredo Velasquez Layaire, a 38-year-old Honduran national, was extradited to the United States from Honduras last week to face charges related to fentanyl dealing.
Velasquez has been charged with one count of conspiracy to distribute fentanyl, according to the U.S. Attorney for the District of Oregon.
In September 2022, special agents from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) found out that Velasquez had active involvement with fentanyl distribution in Oregon. They found that he ran a dispatch-style organization that got and processed drug orders for people in the Portland area.
However, investigators learned early in 2023 that Velasquez had fled to Honduras. A Portland federal grand jury returned an indictment that charged Velasquez with conspiring to distribute fentanyl on November 15, 2023.
Law enforcement arrested Velasquez in Honduras on June 13, 2024; the country extradited him to the United States on August 6.
Velasquez made his initial federal court appearance before a U.S. Magistrate Judge last week. The judge arraigned Velasquez, who pleaded not guilty. The judge also ordered him detained pending a five-day jury trial set to start on October 8, 2024.
The DEA investigated this case with help from the DEA Tegucigalpa, Honduras Country Office, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Seattle Field Office; Paul T. Maloney, Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Oregon, is prosecuting it.
The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs collaborated with Honduran authorities on Velasquez’s arrest and extradition.
This investigation was part of the work done by the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces.
"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," the release said.
This comes as Oregon lawmakers recriminalized drug possession this past spring because of the negative consequences of the 2020 voter-approved Measure 110 that decriminalized it.
Once the measure became law, fentanyl-related drug overdose deaths in Oregon more than doubled .
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