A 24-year-old Beaverton man has been sentenced to nearly three years in federal prison after investigators say a routine traffic stop in March 2025 unraveled into a monthslong fentanyl trafficking case involving fake identification cards, surveilled drug deals, and a backpack stuffed with cash. Eder Fletes Calix pleaded guilty to possessing 400 grams or more of fentanyl with intent to distribute, and a judge ordered him to serve two years and nine months behind bars, followed by five years of supervised release.
The case began when an Oregon State Police trooper pulled over a vehicle Fletes Calix was driving, according to KATU. The trooper reportedly saw a woman get into the vehicle and spotted a large roll of cash sitting in the cup holder, which the co-defendant allegedly pocketed as the stop unfolded, per KOIN. The vehicle's license plate came back with no valid registration, and while the trooper spoke with a back-seat passenger, Fletes Calix and his co-defendant tried to run.
A Car Search Turns Up Fentanyl, Fake IDs and Cash
Authorities executed a search warrant on the vehicle that same day. Inside, according to the outlet's report, agents found a package containing 413 grams of compressed fentanyl hidden beneath the rear passenger floorboard, along with about 107 grams of marijuana and two digital scales. Court documents cited in the same report indicate Fletes Calix and his passenger and co-defendant had provided Mexican identification cards bearing names other than their own.
The Drug Enforcement Administration then took over the investigation, and agents reportedly observed multiple drug sales involving the two men in the months that followed. KATU reports that DEA agents watched a buyer stop at a vehicle driven by Fletes Calix and his accomplice roughly two months after the initial stop; that buyer admitted to purchasing half an ounce of fentanyl for $500 and said she had bought drugs from the pair several times before. About a month after that, agents reportedly witnessed a similar transaction involving a different buyer on 67th Avenue in Portland.
Beaverton Home Search Adds to the Evidence
DEA agents surveilled Fletes Calix's Beaverton home in July 2025, a small studio apartment attached to a house, before federal agents arrested him on July 2, 2025, and searched several locations tied to the case, KATU reported. Searches of the vehicle and the residence turned up a passport, the car title, multiple boxes of Ziploc bags, a digital scale with residue, two fraudulent Mexican identification cards bearing the men's photographs, and the men's cell phones along with a key to the home. Agents also recovered about $22,000 in cash stuffed inside a backpack.
Combining the fentanyl recovered from the vehicle, the residence and related transactions, prosecutors told KATU that investigators seized approximately 767.9 grams of fentanyl powder; KOIN's reporting on the case described the total recovered from the vehicle and home as roughly 768 grams. After his arrest, Fletes Calix said he knew the substance was fentanyl and acknowledged that he and his co-defendant were selling it, according to KATU's account of the case.
Sentencing and What Comes Next
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Oregon announced that Fletes Calix was sentenced to two years and nine months in federal prison, to be followed by five years of supervised release, after he agreed to plead guilty to one count of possession with intent to distribute 400 grams or more of fentanyl. Under federal law, 400 grams or more of a mixture containing a detectable amount of fentanyl is the threshold tied to the charge he admitted to. His co-defendant is scheduled to be sentenced on January 6, 2027, according to KOIN's reporting.
The case lands amid a broader, still-shifting fentanyl landscape in Oregon. Overdose deaths statewide have decreased over the past two years, according to provisional federal data cited in a report from the Oregon Health Authority, with preliminary figures showing around 1,100 deaths in 2025. Even so, the agency's opioid report notes that the majority of polysubstance overdose deaths in the state continue to involve fentanyl and methamphetamine, and that Oregon's illicit drug supply continues to rapidly evolve.
Federal enforcement activity targeting fentanyl trafficking has continued across the Portland area in recent months. The DEA announced a multi-agency enforcement operation in Portland in April 2025 that led to dozens of arrests and the seizure of drugs, firearms and cash, and in July 2025 federal prosecutors charged a Mexican national living in Salem with conspiracy to distribute and possession with intent to distribute fentanyl and heroin.
