A 31-year-old Estacada man was sentenced to just over 14 years in federal prison Wednesday for trafficking 270 pounds of methamphetamine and a kilogram of cocaine that investigators intercepted at an Interstate 5 rest stop near Roseburg. U.S. District Judge Karin J. Immergut handed Anthony Barrera 171 months, followed by five years of supervised release, in a case prosecutors say involved the largest single drug seizure in the history of the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office.
According to The Oregonian/OregonLive, prosecutor Jessica R. Keefer had asked Immergut for a sentence of more than 17 years, citing the massive amount of methamphetamine involved, while defense attorney Larry R. Roloff urged the judge to impose the 10-year statutory mandatory minimum. Immergut rejected the prosecution’s request for a sentence beyond 17 years but still ruled that a serious sentence was warranted given the scale of the drugs involved, according to the same report. The 10-year mandatory minimum stems from federal law: under 21 U.S.C. § 841(b)(1)(A)(viii), distribution offenses involving 500 grams or more of a methamphetamine mixture carry a mandatory minimum of 10 years up to life in prison.
How the Bust Unfolded on I-5
Federal investigators tracked Barrera driving north from Southern California into Oregon on May 24, 2025, using geolocation data tied to two phone numbers, per the OregonLive account. He was arrested after stepping out of his rented pickup truck to smoke a cigarette at the Roseburg rest stop off Interstate 5, where FBI agents and Multnomah County Sheriff’s Special Investigations Unit investigators moved in, according to Detective Jarrett Miller. Barrera had rented the truck from May 20 to May 27, 2025, and investigators found the methamphetamine packages concealed in bags in the back of the vehicle, wrapped in aluminum foil and cellophane.
Investigators also found one brick of cocaine among the numerous large methamphetamine packages, along with $2,860 in cash from Barrera’s wallet. Federal investigators reported that Barrera did not appear intoxicated at the time of his arrest, even though his defense would later center on alcohol addiction. The seizure of 270 pounds of methamphetamine and two pounds of cocaine was officially recognized by the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office as the largest single drug seizure in the agency’s history, surpassing a previous record haul of 100 pounds of methamphetamine from 2017.
Search of Estacada Home Turns Up Guns and Gold
FBI and sheriff’s investigators followed the rest-stop arrest with a search of Barrera’s home in Estacada, where they found two guns — a revolver and a pistol — hidden under removable flooring in a bedroom closet. Roloff told the court that Barrera was not carrying guns when he was caught transporting the drugs. The residential search also turned up three cellphones and four gold bars, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Oregon…