![]() | Interstate 5, which runs 1,381 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border to the Canadian border, is considered a major drug transportation corridor by the U.S. Justice Department. It is one of the eight main drug trafficking corridors in the United States. From 2008 to 2014, almost half of the seizures of illegal drugs in Oregon took place on I-5. | ![]() |
![]() Ernesto Chavez-Cruz, 54 | During that time period, police conducted 738 seizures during traffic stops, including about 474 pounds of methamphetamine and 143 pounds of heroin. The 14-pound seizure is one of the agency's larger seizures but not the largest. In 2014, a rollover crash involving a tractor-trailer rig on U.S. Highway 97 in north-central Oregon revealed bundles of methamphetamine, heroin and cocaine hidden in the pallets of bell peppers in the truck. That haul was 190 pounds of meth, 11 pounds of heroin and 7.5 kilograms of cocaine. | ![]() |