MADGE Arrest on Highway 97 outside Chiloquin Yields 117 Pounds of Fentanyl
An arrest made by the Medford Area Drug and Gang Enforcement (MADGE) team in Klamath County this week yielded 117 pounds of the deadly narcotic fentanyl.
On Wednesday evening, MADGE intercepted a vehicle on Highway 97 outside of Chiloquin after investigators received information that the vehicle was transporting large amounts of narcotics between Southern California and Washington state.
With assistance from the Oregon State Police, investigators stopped the vehicle and Medford Police K-9 "Brodie" alerted to the presence of narcotics. A search of the vehicle uncovered 117 pounds of fentanyl in powder and pill form. A loaded 9-millimeter handgun was also located in the vehicle.
The arrested suspect was identified as 20-year-old Jothan Paul Barrios-Chable of Portland.
The MADGE team is a multi-jurisdictional narcotics task force that identifies, disrupts and dismantles local, multi-state and international drug trafficking organizations using intelligence-driven, multi-agency prosecutor support.
The team is supported by the Oregon-Idaho High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA), which is composed of members from the Medford Police Department, Jackson County Sheriff's Office, Jackson County District Attorney's Office, Jackson County Parole & Probation, Homeland Security and the FBI.
The Oregon-Idaho HIDTA program is an Office of National Drug Control Policy sponsored counterdrug grant program that coordinates with and provides funding resources to agencies such as MADGE. This case was accepted for prosecution by the US Attorney's Office of Oregon for federal charges.
