QuickTake:

The sentencing Tuesday of a one-time Eugene resident capped the investigation. But a drug interdiction leader says the area remains a busy one for traffickers.

Four years ago, authorities seized 384 pounds of methamphetamine from a Lane County storage unit — the largest single seizure of methamphetamine in state history.

Tuesday, Martin Manzo Negrete, described by federal prosecutors as the leader of a group trafficking in drugs, was sentenced to 180 months in federal prison and five years of supervised release.

And according to a report dated this month, Lane County remains among 12 counties in the state named by federal authorities as a High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, a special designation that allows for federally-sponsored regional drug interdiction efforts.

It’s a designation shared by Oregon counties all along the I-5 corridor. Despite successful drug prosecutions, it may not change anytime soon.

“We have the demand, so the supply is always going to come,” said Lt. Juston Alexander, commander of what’s known as the Linn Interagency Narcotics Enforcement Team, or LINE.

In a statement released Tuesday, the U.S. attorney’s office for the region credited LINE, the Springfield Police Department and the Eugene Police Department with helping in the investigation leading to the conviction of Manzo Negrete. Five others also pleaded guilty to having a role in methamphetamine being trafficked from California to Oregon, with the drugs then distributed and sold in and around Lane County.

Manzo Negrete, a 51-year-old Mexican national said by prosecutors to be “unlawfully residing in Lane County,” pleaded guilty in March to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine. At the time of the record drug seizure, authorities described Manzo Negrete as a resident of Eugene.

The investigation began in October 2020 into what the U.S. attorney’s office has called the Manzo-Mares trafficking cell, with charges filed in September 2021 against Manzo Negrete.

Two days after the filing of charges, police from local law enforcement agencies helped execute federal search warrants at multiple locations in Lane County. Manzo Negrete also was arrested as part of the multi-agency law enforcement effort.

While Alexander worked on those warrants, he wasn’t at the scene of the storage unit where the record-setting meth seizure took place. But he said he remembers feeling proud to have been a part of the effort — led by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration — leading to such a large seizure of drugs.

“They did incredible work,” Alexander said. 

LINE includes six full-time investigators, a part-time investigator, two federal counterparts and an analyst, he said. The participants come from home agencies; Alexander’s is the Albany Police Department.

The designation of counties as high-density drug trafficking areas allows for federal funding for efforts like LINE, Alexander said.

The Oregon counties designated as high-density trafficking sites are part of a larger federal counterdrug grant program, which helps fund various multi-agency drug enforcement initiatives.

Law enforcement agencies remain “very collaborative” in their drug interdiction efforts, Alexander said. Even with some staffing challenges affecting police departments as a whole, LINE’s number of personnel is actually a bit greater than four years ago, Alexander said.

As far as the amount of methamphetamine on the streets in this region, “I’d say methamphetamine is still very readily available,” Alexander said. “You don’t often stumble across 300 pounds of meth in a single location [but] I would believe that those stashes still exist.”

In addition to the meth seized from the storage unit in 2021, police also seized 14 guns and more than $76,000 in cash.

Alexander said he sees street drugs leading to other crimes, whether it’s someone committing crimes to pay for a drug habit or those under the influence breaking the law.

Trafficking organizations are also “bringing drugs in and taking cash out,” he added.

With efforts like LINE and ways that law enforcement agencies partner to stop drug trafficking, “ultimately, we’re hoping our communities are a little safer,” Alexander said.