PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – Two Portland-area drug traffickers were each sentenced to federal prison Thursday after they were discovered selling fentanyl, heroin and meth in 2021.
Rodrigo Diaz-Lopez, 53, of Gresham and Jonathan Avila-Suarez, 31, of Portland will each serve more than 10 years – 135 and 120 months, respectively – in prison and five years of supervised release. The men were found guilty of distributing drugs in the Portland area through a drug trafficking organization led by two brothers in Nayarit, Mexico.
Avila-Suarez pleaded guilty to possessing with intent to distribute meth in January and Diaz-Lopez pleaded guilty to possessing with intent to distribute heroin in February.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration received a tip in February 2021 that Avila-Suarez had arranged a delivery of 400 grams of heroin to a Portland hotel room. Agents seized the heroin from his customer that day and used a search warrant in Avila-Suarez’s house the following day.
Inside the house, authorities found two guns and “large quantities” of heroin, meth and fentanyl packaged for distribution.
Agents had also arranged for a controlled purchase of meth from Diaz-Lopez, who was issued a search warrant in March 2021. Inside, they found several kilograms each of meth, heroin and counterfeit Oxycodone pills containing fentanyl. Officers also found $30,000 and two guns.
The two men were charged with the intent to distribute controlled substances and later indicted on other charges.
Diaz-Lopez has also had three prior felony drug trafficking convictions, and according to court documents, he has repeatedly been removed from the country for his crimes.
