Honduran nationals are running fentanyl trafficking rings in cities across the western U.S., an alternative newspaper in Oregon reports.
Law enforcement agencies have been investigating a cartel using “Honduran nationals to distribute bulk amounts of fentanyl … in the western United States,” according to Willamette Week, citing a criminal complaint filed Dec. 12 in U.S. District Court in Portland.
Fentanyl trafficking operations have been identified in the cities of Seattle, Denver, Portland, Oregon, Oakland, California, and Salt Lake City, Utah, the newspaper reported.
A U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration task force, Group D-51, has been investigating cases involving the drug trafficking rings, according to Willamette Week. The task force includes the Department of Homeland Security as well as Oregon’s Tigard and Sherwood police departments and the Washington County Sheriff’s Office.
One drug trafficking organization “is suspected of importing controlled substances, including fentanyl pills, heroin, and methamphetamine from Mexico into the United States, and conspiring to distribute those drugs in Oregon and Washington,” the newspaper reported.
Honduran nationals have dominated fentanyl dealing on the streets of San Francisco in recent years, the San Francisco Chronicle reported in July. One of the biggest appeals the city offers is a shield from immigration authorities due to its sanctuary status.
“The reason is because, in San Francisco, it’s like you’re here in Honduras,” one Honduran drug dealer told the Chronicle. “The law, because they don’t deport, that’s the problem.”
“Many look for San Francisco because it’s a sanctuary city,” the drug dealer added. “You go to jail and you come out.”
This article originally was published by the Daily Caller News Foundation
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