A Range Rover, two Mercedes and four late-model Bentleys. Five guns. Thousands of suspected oxycodone pills, plus marijuana and crack cocaine.
And illegal drug money stashed in accounts, part of $1.7 million allegedly laundered.
“Miami Vice”? No, the Pacific Northwest and several other states.
Three Vancouver residents are among 15 members of an alleged drug ring that operated since 2008 and sold oxycodone in Washington, Oregon, Nevada, Texas and Florida, according to court papers and a bulletin from Gerri Badden with the U.S. Department of Justice in Portland.
Oxycodone is a prescription narcotic opioid painkiller that is sold under the brand name OxyContin and others.
Vancouver residents Melvin A. Allotey, aka Harlem, 27; Mei Lynn Pham, aka Deanna Smith, 30; and James Phinazee Elliot, 32, are among those accused in a federal grand jury indictment filed Wednesday and made public Thursday.
Four Portland residents, two from Milwaukie, Ore., and one from Las Vegas also are among those indicted for charges such as distributing oxycodone, laundering drug money and traveling in interstate commerce as part of the alleged conspiracy.
The bulletin says federal, state and local law enforcement officers executed more than a dozen search warrants in the five states, seizing luxury cars, pills, five handguns, marijuana, crack cocaine and cash.
Officials also executed more than 20 warrants to seize the cars and bank accounts.
Among the local agencies that took part in the case are the Vancouver Police Department, Clark County Sheriff’s Office and Clark-Skamania Drug Task Force, the bulletin said.
Several Portland-area officials including Portland police, Oregon State Police, U.S. Marshals and IRS agents participated in the investigation and “coordinated nationwide takedown,” along with others as far away as Boston, New York and Honolulu, the bulletin said.
The investigation was so extensive because of the problems oxycodone and similar drugs cause. Much of the ring’s drug sales occurred in the Pacific Northwest, officials said.
“Prescription drug abuse is a growing crisis that kills over 400 people a year in Oregon,” U.S. Attorney Dwight C. Holton said in the bulletin.
“Prescription drug abuse in the U.S. is alarmingly high and is responsible for more drug overdose deaths than cocaine, heroin and amphetamines combined,” said Acting Special Agent in Charge Mark Thomas with the Drug Enforcement Administration.
“Money laundering, the process by which money obtained from illegal activity is given the appearance of having come from a legitimate source, is essential to drug dealing,” said Marcus Williams, IRS special agent in charge of the Pacific Northwest. “One of our main goals is to always deprive traffickers of the luxury items purchased with drug money.”
John Branton: 360-735-4513 or john.branton@columbian.com.
