Suspect arrested after stop Tuesday on Ashland Street near Exit 14
By Nick Morgan, Rogue Valley Times
A Jackson County grand jury indicted a Sacramento man on multiple felony drug charges accusing him of bringing to Southern Oregon more than 100 pounds of suspected methamphetamine and roughly 12 pounds of fentanyl pressed into counterfeit oxycodone pills.
Cruz Bernardo Lopez-Ramos, 31, is slated to be arraigned Friday afternoon on charges of unlawfully delivering and possessing methamphetamine and unlawfully delivering and possessing a Schedule II controlled substance stemming from a cache of narcotics seized Tuesday in south Ashland by the Medford Area Drug and Gang Enforcement (MADGE) task force.
The investigation began in late December when MADGE detectives “received info that a subject would be transporting a large amount of drugs in the Southern Oregon area,” according to an affidavit filed in Lopez-Ramos’ case. Lopez-Ramos is also listed in Jackson County Circuit Court and Jackson County Jail records under the name “Cruz Lopez.”
MADGE tracked down the suspect vehicle on Interstate 5 Tuesday as it headed north from the California border, according to a release issued by MADGE. The narcotics task force credits Oregon State Police and the Jackson County Illegal Marijuana Enforcement Team with assisting in the case. Police stopped Lopez-Ramos’ vehicle Tuesday evening in the 2500 block of Ashland Street near Exit 14, according to the affidavit.
Lopez-Ramos denied consent to search the vehicle, but MADGE got a search warrant after MADGE K9 “Bodie” smelled narcotics and flagged the trunk, the release said.
The drugs were found stashed in a suitcase and a “large drawstring duffel bag,” according to the affidavit. Police found 104 pounds of suspected methamphetamine in “large cellophane wrapped bindles” and roughly 12 pounds of fentanyl in the form of “blue M30” pills pressed to look like oxycodone.
Lopez-Ramos was arrested Tuesday night, and remains an inmate as of midday Friday.
He made his first court appearance Wednesday. At the hearing, Judge Kelly Ravassipour ordered no early release unless Lopez-Ramos pays 10% bond on bail set at $250,000.
Reach reporter Nick Morgan at nmorgan@rv-times.com or 458-488-2036. This story first appeared in the Rogue Valley Times.
