How a stolen Postal Service drug detector led feds to an alleged drug dealer in Portland

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Someone swiped a handheld drug detection device from the car of a Portland post office employee and it ended up in the hands of an alleged drug dealer who used it to verify the types of drugs he was selling, according to a federal affidavit.

The “RedWave ThreatID” Spectrometer detector tracked the drugs tested and where the tests occurred, right down to the GPS coordinates — and sent all the information to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.

The tests ran from mid-March, shortly after the device was stolen, through mid-June on samples of fentanyl, methamphetamine, cocaine, ecstasy and other drugs, according to the affidavit.

And most of the tests tracked back to the same location — the Portland home of Cameron Curtis Lee, according to the FBI.

Federal agents raided Lee’s home in the 3500 block of Southeast 70th Avenue in July after Postal Inspection Service officials, who were tracking all the test reports, alerted the FBI to the theft of the device.

On Friday, Lee, 36, pleaded not guilty in federal court in Portland to an 11-count indictment charging him with distribution of fentanyl, two counts each of possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine and possession with intent to distribute heroin, one count of possession with intent to distribute fentanyl, two counts of possessing a gun in furtherance of a drug-trafficking crime, two counts of being a felon with a gun and one count of receiving, concealing and holding onto stolen U.S. government property.

The raid wasn’t the first time federal law enforcement officers had encountered Lee, according to the affidavit.

FBI agents had questioned Lee in January, shortly after two women had nearly died from fentanyl overdoses in the Washington County Jail on Dec. 20. Both were revived with the use of Narcan, Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott Kerin said.

Federal agents, working with Washington County’s Westside Interagency Narcotics team, traced the drugs provided to the women in jail to Lee, the affidavit said.



They obtained a warrant in January to search his home and found a small amount of drugs, Kerin said. At that time, Lee told investigators he was selling drugs to a customer base of about 30 people and admitted he had sold fentanyl to a woman three weeks earlier who apparently took the drug into the jail and shared it with two prisoners, who nearly died from overdoses, Kerin said in court Friday.

But police didn’t arrest Lee at that time as their investigation continued.

During the July search of Lee’s home, investigators recovered the $76,000 drug detector and seized a 9mm pistol, a.22-caliber rifle, a sawed-off shotgun, a .22-caliber revolver, as well as two sets of body armor panels and ammunition.

Lee told investigators he had traded two bicycles for the device from someone who sells him fentanyl when he’s in a “pinch,” the affidavit said. The drug detection device had been stolen from an Postal Service employee’s car March 8 in the area of Northeast Glenn Widing Drive in Portland.

Though Lee said he suspected the device may have been stolen, he watched videos to learn how to use it to test drugs that he sold to others to check their potency “because product quality had been bad lately,” according to the affidavit.

At Lee’s court appearance, U.S. Magistrate Judge Jeff Armistead allowed Lee’s release to inpatient treatment. Kerin, the prosecutor, said he supported the release because he recognized that Lee suffered from a severe addiction and that Lee was a a fairly low street-level dealer.

If Lee completes the treatment successfully, he can be transferred to a clean-and-sober house pending his trial, Armistead said.

“Thank you, your Honor,” Lee told the judge. “I’m grateful for the opportunity.”

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