25 arrested in meth, heroin bust on Oregon Coast
SEASIDE, Ore. – Authorities arrested 20 people during a methamphetamine and heroin investigation in the Seaside area on the Oregon Coast.
A drug task force served search warrants and made the arrests Sunday morning.
Police announced four more arrests early this week on drug charges. A fifth arrest was made with charges pending.
The 6-month investigation, dubbed “Operation: Pandora’s Box”, led police to three separate residences, including a house along Highway 26 with a compound of six trailers surrounding it. Detectives said the compound was a “significant source” of heroin and meth in Clatsop County.
None of the trailers in the compound had electricity or water service. There were electrical cords running to each of the trailers from a nearby generator. Police said sewage from the compound was directed through pipes into the Necanicum River, which flows alongside the property.
Detectives said they found hundreds of uncapped needles, small amounts of blood, and buckets of urine and feces inside.
Members of the drug task force received several complaints about the three separate homes and some of the suspects over the past six months. Neighbors complained about a house and an apartment in Seaside that they told police received a “high volume of drug traffic.”
Detectives said of the 20 people arrested, there were one mother and daughter pair and two pairs of fathers and sons.
Police also seized an unspecified amount of drugs, along with $2,500 in cash.
“As sheriff of this county, I would like to thank all the deputies and officers involved from the numerous agencies who worked diligently to help with this large case,” said Clatsop County Sheriff Tom Bergin. “They did an excellent job and I am proud to work with these individuals every day.”
Dealing with this HORRIBLE drug with my own nephew right now...Heroin has ruined his life, our lives and everything that comes into contact with it...wish we could take all of them down...but let's face it...look at the pics here...given the fact several of these were Father/Son, Mother/Daughter...Really??? Nobody told you in order to make the $$$, you can't use the goods???
Good job taking out the trash!!
20 law breakers with a combined $2500 in cash? They must nt have been in business for the money.Â
Man, none of these people look normal.
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Society's never ending story. Whether it is better to treat the "causes" of the problem, or punish the "symptoms".
Another month, and they'd all have been dead anyway. Now we get to foot the $3 million bill to prosecute and warehouse these parasites. If someone had simply dropped off 10 gallons of unleaded along with a match, it would have been a much neater clean up operation.
Still, it'd be amusing to watch them on candid camera as they detox in county. (Definitely NOT the weekend I'd want to get tossed in the cooler!)
@Don_Keyshow It's not about cleaning things up really. Never was. The jailis at capacity. These people won't spend more than a day or two there, tops. And they won't be sentenced to massive time either. No room at the inn. BUT, it's an election year, and two months before said election the sheriff arrested 25 drug dealers and got them "off the streets". Yes, they managed to interrupt the drug flow for a time, but two months AFTER the election, everything will be back to normal.
Oh now, come on! Â These handsome, vital people can't possibly be guilty. Â They all look so ... so ... well rounded and healthy. Â ... gagging a little ... The family that "sticks" together is a family that's "sick" together. Â <shudder>
There is no disclaimer as you enter the town of Seaside that lets any new resident know where they should live or what area is the "hot spot" for drug traffic and criminal activity. When a new friend is made, paperwork is not usually required to prove whether or not the person "is on paper" or not "on paper."Â The finger pointing and judgmental minds that have written most of these comments need to take a look in their own back yards to be sure that everything is perfect and no life experience is tarnished. Feeling superior is an addiction upon which many, many human beings thrive. Compassion, empathy, humility and kindness are rarely extended to those that are judged inferior by the criteria each person sets for himself/herself as being right or wrong. This writer is more concerned about those that creep into my life looking normal.
considering Vicodin, Oxycontin, and pills of the sort are as bad a problem as meth. Any kind of addiction is horrible. The bible said, he who has not sinned, cast the first stone.
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At least they're not Mexicans and we've savea a little $ by not having to deport them.
From the story the Daily Astorian ran: "Of the 20 subjects arrested during âOperation Pandoraâs Box,â 18 were taken to the Clatsop County Jail whereupon they were booked and lodged pending arraignment or early release because of lack of jail space and overcrowding." There you have it. These people will be back on the streets in a day or two.
Sounds like jail might be quite an upgrade in their standard of living.
Summer Teeth! Some are here, some are there...Â
Look at me, busy as a bee. Where'd I get all this energy?
Oh meth; mmm meth!
I don't sleep, and I don't eat. But I got the cleanest house on the street!
Oh meth; mmm meth!
Get these hairs all out my face, get these bugs all out of my place. One more hit, NO TIME TO WASTE!
Oh meth; Ooo meth! http://youtu.be/bxAYHOWxGi8
How many banjos were recovered?
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20 wasted lives. Some more than others, with the tear tattoo and other faces. Hopefully the county will take all of the trailers and the house and condemn them, then level the ground. Some of these people with proper help could possibly get out of the addiction they have. Some will be there forever. Sad really, they could have gotten high on life as one mentioned, now what have they got?
 @Just Lookin Many people's lives are still pretty bleak WITHOUT drugs & alcohol...
Not a single one of these individuals looks like anything except frighteningly hollow eyes... and eyes are the window to the Soul. The march of the zombies, indeed.
All the small towns in Oregon from the coast (chronically underpaid jobs or no jobs) to the closed mill towns (no jobs) have been totally overrun with meth and other drugs as a disturbing and highway-to-hell "way of income" for these towns.
 @whirledworld Drugs are the ONLY things keeping many of these small towns going; these 20 people can be considered collateral damage for the benefit of the larger picture of Small Town USA...
Look at the US CUSTOMS and Border Protection website - specifically, under "Local Press Releases".
It's a wonder that every last Oregonian is not addicted.
Local newspapers will not print that report because it is "not local news".
So, though those drugs slip through the border and through Oregon's state borders, it's NOT newsworthy.Â
:(
I hope that young girl is not the daughter of the older people. How sad to be raised in that environment.
 Harry Juku....Talk about zombies....Google "Krokadil". You will FREAK. It's a drug that I pray never comes to America, if it hasn't already.
Jesus those people look bad!
They'll be released in a couple weeks; that's how these cases usually work.
How cool do you feel NOW, maggot sacks?
Welcome to Walmart...
I just don't get the attraction to these drugs that destroy your body and mind. It's like people that smoke and abuse alcohol. I just don't understand. When people know the dangers of it, there is no excuse to start.
Having experienced addiction & rehab in both my immediate family, and in my extended circle of friends, I can tell you that there is no 'silver bullet' answer to your question. There is no single cause of addiction other than some type of trigger event that caused a desire for use. Be it emotional pain, physical pain, or some psychological trigger, or peer pressure, the only real 'choice' is the first use. From there on, it's the addiction that makes the decisions. As is so typically the case, when a compulsion is making your lives decisions, they are generally not life enhancing ones.
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Another point to be made is that there is plenty of socially acceptible addictions and 'social novacaine' availible and used in our communities as well. Given that almost 1/5 of the population is on some form of psych medication, pain medication or uses legal intoxicants. The only difference is that those are legal, taxable corporate profitable forms of addiction.
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Don't even get me started on gambling. Â Â
Given the meth sores I see some of these people are more sick than criminal. Get these folks help.
 @Marine1968 All addicts are sick. The sickness creates or enhances the criminal behavior.
>'a house along Highway 26 with a compound of six trailers surrounding it. Detectives said the compound was a âsignificant sourceâ of heroin and meth in Clatsop County.
None of the trailers in the compound had electricity or water service. There were electrical cords running to each of the trailers from a nearby generator. Police said sewage from the compound was directed through pipes into the Necanicum River, which flows alongside the property.'
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*facepalm*
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Cant imagine how the local PD cracked this obviously mastermind drug operation.... I guess if there's nother else to be thankful for, it's the fact that these future MENSA candidates made it so easy to find them.
One of those faces doesn't belong. Hope the young lady gets herself some help before she starts looking like the others.
Thank goodness they were arrested.
Thankful for the fact that people can actually change if they can find the right resources, unfortunately there aren't any resources left. To many of these people go in and out of treatment and still end up right where they left off!!!! I say kudos to the officers for all they've done and continue to do. GOD BLESS YOU ALLÂ Â Â
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I guess the new  2013 "Faces of Meth" models have just been revealed...
And IMMEDIATELY someone else took over the Heroin & Meth business along the coast.....ABSOLUTELY NOTHING CHANGED!
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As diseased as these people look, you have to wonder why anyone would want to use meth.
 @Nobody It's a vicious cycle straight to the bottom...
Headline suggestion:
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Twenty Trailer Trash Tweakers Tagged in Tourist Town Tipover.
This is just the tip of the iceburg...why are there not more busts? There are thousands of people just like them out there but nothing is being done about it. The war on drugs is a joke!
 @portlandborn83 All this does is give the coast police & jail industry taxpayer funding...
 @August100  @portlandborn83 Jail industry?
 @Nobody  @August100  @portlandborn83 Yes, prison industry. Haven't heard of it? Google is a wonderful thing, here's just one link that came up. A few people are making a ton of money off our prison system.
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http://truth-out.org/news/item/8731-prison-industries-dont-let-society-improve-or-we-lose-business-part-i
 @portlandborn83 First, it appears that something is being done. Second, since people keep voting against police funding, there is a limit on the number of police available. Third, these folks aren't just advertising their operations. It takes awhile, as in this operation, to track down all involved. An arrest of 20 people in one operation isn't trivial. And, finally, if we are going to protect individual rights, there is a fairly stringent set of legalities that need to be waded through before anyone can be arrested. (and rightly so.)
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But the "war" will never be won until people stop using illegal drugs. Get high on life, not drugs.
 @Nobody  @portlandborn83 Police can only be reactive in this case - there is only so much that they can do.  Obviously our borders are completely porous as evidenced by the size of the busts that have occurred lately.  It will be damn near impossible to seal the borders from contraband without building an East German style wall.
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We need to stop relying on the police to solve this societal problem and look more to treating drug abuse as a disease rather than a crime. Â Much of the problem is a lack of opportunity for kids these days. Â
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If it were up to me, I'd make every kid (that isn't college bound) do a mandatory two years of military or public service and teach them job skills at the same time.  You can't expect society to change through only negative feedback of behaviors - there has to be some positive reinforcement and light at the end of the tunnel.
Doing drugs is a disease? Maybe, but nothing medically effective can really be done to remedy the problem. Sure, you can interrupt it for awhile and feel good that something positive occurred; but that will not last.
And as for a lack of opportunity? Isn't dealing drugs, and stealing to support using, a form of self-employment in following the highly-touted profit motive?
Aren't those job skills?Â
Come on, drug dealing is a crime, pure and simple!
Now who is going to operate the rides at the carnival?
 @Beergod Well, the carnival season is coming to an end, there's always next year.
 @Beergod can't.stop.laughing.