Portland, Ore. – Police say a recent drug bust near Legacy Emanuel hospital is a significant step toward improving safety and quality of life in the city.
Portland Police began investigating the Stop and Go Mini Mart a year ago, following numerous complaints of drug use at Dawson Park, just across the street. PPB’s Mike Benner says officers executed a search warrant Monday at the store, “Detectives seized a significant amount of cocaine, fentanyl, heroin, numerous firearms – one that was stolen, and $6,600 in cash,” among other evidence. Benner adds, “Shortly before the execution of that search warrant, the Stop and Go owner, Donald Sharma, a 43-year-old man from Beaverton, was arrested during a traffic stop.” Sharma is listed as the owner of the market and its only employee. According to court documents, he told police during his arrest, “someone must have been snitching.”
Officer Chris McDonald is the lead investigator and says the store in the Eliot Neighborhood had been a problem for several years, “I think the nexus of drug dealing started to become fairly obvious, and of course, when you have a school right next door, when you have a church that’s right there and then a hospital that’s behind me, that kind of led to it becoming a bigger and bigger priority for us.”…