Portland Lets Suspect in State’s Biggest Fentanyl Drug Bust Walk Free

10 January 2024

Recently, Oregon reached a grim milestone: the state’s largest fentanyl drug bust. What could have been a heartening story of textbook police work, the prevention of countless overdoses, and the halting of a dangerous criminal is instead a glaring indictment of failed Portland policies.

This debacle not only reveals an inability to effectively deter criminals but also a failure to protect the most vulnerable members of the community. Furthermore, it highlights the type of behavior that is encouraged under a flawed criminal justice system.

Portland’s Largest Fentanyl Bust

A few weeks before Christmas, the Dangerous Drugs Team busted a massive drug ring, uncovering 52 pounds of fentanyl in Portland and over 8,000 fentanyl pills in Oregon City. Going off DEA stats, the drug dealers were about to release enough drugs to kill everyone in the state nearly three times over.

In a move emblematic of the Portland model, the main drug dealer, Luis Funez was allowed to walk free on the same day of his arrest. Apparently, having enough fentanyl to kill 11 million people doesn’t nullify your get-out-of-jail-free card. Ready for the real kicker? This wasn’t the first time Funez had been arrested for dealing fentanyl in Portland.

In 2021, Multnomah County adopted controversial bail reform which ultimately led to Funez’s premature release. As anyone could have guessed, the perp didn’t show up to court the following morning. Fortunately, police were able to rearrest the fugitive during a routine traffic stop a few days later.

When you have to rely on recidivism or sheer criminal stupidity to catch the bad guys, you know something is wrong. At the very least, Portlanders can rest assured that this lead suspect is finally in custody and (at least for now) it doesn’t look like he’ll get released.

It would be reassuring to say this raid was anomalous, but this comes in a long string of serious fentanyl seizures. As recent as September, police found 28 pounds of fentanyl in a vehicle in downtown Portland. In March of 2022, a then-record high of 20 pounds was discovered. Notice the pattern? The problem is only getting worse.

The Portland Model is to Blame

Politicians and ideologues love to tout the theoretical benefits of their policies, but it’s radio silence the second real-life consequences take effect. For years, the Portland elites have experimented with blatantly risky policies to the direct detriment of their constituents.

You can draw a straight line from limited police funding, soft-on-crime policies, and drug decriminalization to the disastrous outcome of this historic (for now) fentanyl bust. As these policies become more radical, criminals grow bolder and the inevitable harm escalates. It’s a dangerous gamble made on behalf of Portlanders which has only resulted in chaos, harm, and death.

While they’re held up in their guarded communities and insider circles, Portlanders are suffering the daily consequences of their policies: crime, homelessness, drug addiction, overdoses…the list goes on and on.

The Results Speak for Themselves

For Portlanders, this blunder reinforces a stark truth: the city is in crisis. Its failed policies prioritize political correctness over public safety, ideology over practicality, and short-term appeasement over long-term solutions.

For Clackamas County, this unfortunate event fortifies our commitment to fighting Portland Creep and proves that doing things the Clackamas Way is optimizing safety, preserving sanity, and building a stronger community.

It’s a testament to our dedication to preserving local control, reasserting our values, and ensuring that our policies reflect the genuine needs and concerns of our residents, not popular political narratives of the day.

Clackamas County has gone from a follow-the-leader victim of Portland’s policies to a model of sanity for other counties looking to escape the fate of so many Oregon communities. We decided to take a stand, say enough is enough, and chart our course. And, we’ve been all the better for it. Let’s keep doing things the Clackamas Way.