Key supplier of Mexican drug organization based in Portland sentenced to over 15 years in prison

By Gangsters Inc. Editors

A key supplier for a Mexican drug trafficking organization operating in the Portland Metropolitan Area was sentenced to over 15 years in prison on Tuesday. 44-year-old Eduardo “Barbas” Barbosa Lopez supplied the group with large quantities of heroin and meth.

According to court documents, beginning in 2018, two men, Samuel Diaz and Faustino Monroy, organized, led, and ran a drug trafficking organization, based in Mexico, responsible for trafficking hundreds of pounds of methamphetamine and heroin into Oregon for distribution.

Both men worked closely with associates who ran a Portland distribution cell, which, at its peak, was responsible for distributing as much as 77 pounds of methamphetamine and 55 pounds of heroin weekly in and around Portland.

Barbosa, whose documented history of drug trafficking includes multiple felony convictions spanning nearly two decades, served as one of Diaz and Monroy’s most prolific sources of supply for methamphetamine and heroin in the Portland Metropolitan Area.

He was directly involved in smuggling drugs from Mexico into Oregon where they were processed and prepared for sale at stash houses throughout the metro area. A large network of local drug dealers would then distribute user quantities of each drug.

Tienda Mexicana González Bros.

The organization would routinely change stash locations, rotate vehicles and phones, and pay individual couriers to take time off to avoid detection by law enforcement. To conceal his individual role in the conspiracy, Barbosa used multiple cell phones and false passports, lied to law enforcement about his identity, and successfully thwarted an effort to track the movement of his vehicle.

Diaz and Monroy leveraged relationships with the operators of Tienda Mexicana González Bros., a small convenience store and market in Southeast Portland, to launder millions of dollars in drug proceeds. Between January 2015 and October 2019, the organization laundered at least $19 million dollars through the market. In July 2021, one of the operators of the market, Jesus González Vazquez, was sentenced to 11 years in federal prison for his role in the conspiracy.

Indictments

In October 2019, Barbosa and many of his co-defendants were arrested as part of a coordinated, multi-agency law enforcement operation. Investigators executed federal search warrants at more than a dozen locations throughout the Portland area, seizing approximately 22 pounds of methamphetamine, quantities of heroin and cocaine, and seven firearms. Law enforcement also seized 51 firearms, including assault rifles, shotguns, and handguns, from defendants affiliated with the Diaz-Monroy organization.

A federal grand jury in Portland returned a 61-count superseding indictment on October 24, 2019, charging Barbosa and 41 others for their roles in the drug trafficking and money laundering conspiracy. Later, on November 5, 2019, a federal grand jury in Portland returned a separate, one-count indictment charging Barbosa with illegally reentering the United States after being deported for a felony offense. On April 5, 2022, he pleaded guilty to both charges.

Barbosa is the thirty-second defendant sentenced for his role in the conspiracy.

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