A 39-year-old Baltimore woman was arrested at Portland International Airport last month after officers said they found roughly 60 pounds of marijuana packed into her checked luggage, and investigators believe she wasn't traveling alone. Janay Mateo was stopped at a United Airlines boarding gate before her flight, and the case has since expanded across state lines to a second traveler now facing charges in Pennsylvania.
Port of Portland police arrested and cited Mateo on Aug. 31, according to KPTV, after screeners discovered marijuana in her luggage. Investigators say they ultimately found 50 vacuum-sealed packages of marijuana spread across her two checked suitcases, totaling roughly 59.5 pounds. Port of Portland police intercepted Mateo and her second bag at the United Airlines gate, and according to The Oregonian/OregonLive, airport staff and police had already discovered about 30 pounds of marijuana in sealed bags at a checked-luggage processing point around 3:45 a.m. before another roughly 30 pounds turned up in her second bag.
Mateo admitted the second suitcase also contained marijuana and consented to a search of it, the KPTV report states. She told detectives she planned to take the marijuana to Maryland to resell some of it, while keeping most of it for her own use. Per the same account, she said she smoked marijuana daily and intended to smoke most of what she was carrying herself.
A Second Traveler Surfaces in Pennsylvania
Security footage reviewed by investigators showed Mateo had been traveling with a companion who checked three suitcases separately, and Portland police alerted Pennsylvania authorities once that traveler landed. Officers there identified and arrested the man, and according to the same KPTV report, they found approximately 65 pounds of suspected marijuana in his luggage, along with a $62,195 receipt listing marijuana strains and pricing.
Court records reviewed by The Oregonian/OregonLive did not confirm the Pennsylvania traveler's age. Mateo faces Oregon charges of unlawful marijuana export, unlawful delivery of a marijuana item and unlawful possession, the station's report notes. The Oregonian/OregonLive separately reported that Mateo was accused of unlawfully possessing marijuana connected to a person under 21, though that outlet also noted she has no previous convictions in Oregon. Her arraignment was scheduled for Wednesday.
Part of a String of PDX Marijuana Busts
This was the sixth marijuana bust at Portland International Airport that FOX12 had covered so far in 2026, per the KPTV report. Oregon has legalized marijuana for adults 21 and older, and under the framework laid out by the Oregon Legislature, licensed and regulated sellers may legally manufacture and sell it within the state — but carrying large quantities across state lines runs into separate legal exposure, since it crosses into export and distribution territory rather than simple in-state possession.
Earlier in the summer, Port of Portland police and TSA officers made back-to-back large seizures within days of each other. On July 12, officers responded after TSA screeners flagged a checked suitcase bound for Denver containing 53 pounds of suspected marijuana, while a 24-year-old man was arrested two days earlier after screeners found more than 38 pounds in his luggage, according to KPTV's reporting on a separate case involving Josiah Sumner, who was arrested after TSA officers found about 60 pounds of suspected marijuana in two suitcases bound for Atlanta.
That same week, according to OregonLive, officials arrested an Alabama woman, 32-year-old Bria Gaines, after allegedly finding 53 pounds of the drug in two suitcases — the second large marijuana discovery in checked baggage at PDX in less than a week. Days earlier, TSA officers at PDX found more than 30 pounds of marijuana in the checked bags of passenger Jihad Muhammad, who was arrested before boarding a flight to Newark; OregonLive reported that Muhammad had no criminal record in Oregon and was released on his own recognizance. Port of Portland police also reported finding 57 pounds of marijuana hidden inside superglued bags in a passenger's checked luggage back on May 7, per KPTV.
