A Portland man is headed to prison for seven and a half years after prosecutors tied him to drug sales at a TriMet station in East Portland. The case was built around surveillance footage, a long investigation and a criminal record that prosecutors said made a shorter sentence difficult to justify.
According to KPTV, Elliot Mejia accepted a plea deal and was sentenced to 90 months in prison. Footage from the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office showed Mejia selling drugs at the TriMet station near 122nd Avenue and East Burnside Street, and he had been arrested in June 2025 on several charges, including unlawful possession of methamphetamine.
TriMet Security Footage Became The Key Evidence
The investigation began after TriMet personnel reviewed security video and continued for roughly a year, according to prosecutors. The surveillance work gave investigators a way to document alleged activity at a transit location where riders, employees and nearby businesses regularly overlap.
TriMet says its security operation coordinates with local law enforcement and the Transit Police Division, which patrols buses, trains, platforms and transit centers. The agency has also expanded its use of security cameras, emergency call stations and centralized dispatching as it tries to respond more quickly to problems across the system, according to TriMet.
Prosecutors Pointed To A Long Criminal Record
The Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office acknowledged that 90 months is a substantial sentence for a drug-dealing case, but said Mejia’s history weighed heavily in the outcome. Deputy District Attorney Branden Meadows told KPTV that Mejia had a 2012 federal drug-dealing conviction, continued picking up cases and also had an unlawful-use-of-a-weapon case in his record.
Meadows characterized the sentence as a message that the office had reached its limit with repeat offending, saying, “Enough is enough.” Prosecutors also said Mejia’s activity was contributing to drug use and the problems businesses experience around open-air markets.
East Portland Transit Stops Have Seen Repeated Drug Crackdowns
The 122nd Avenue and East Burnside area has drawn law-enforcement attention before. A previous transit crackdown in the area involved multiple agencies and targeted suspected narcotics activity near East Portland intersections and transit locations.
That history helps explain why investigators focused on station surveillance in Mejia’s case rather than treating the alleged sales as isolated encounters. The sentence also arrives as Portland officials continue pairing transit policing with cameras, security teams and prosecution of drug-related offenses.
TriMet and the district attorney’s office say the public-safety effort will continue, with transit personnel expected to keep reviewing footage and coordinating with law enforcement. For riders, the case is a reminder that activity that appears routine on a platform can become the centerpiece of a criminal investigation months later.
