Around the state
Published 12:00 am Tuesday, April 23, 2019
- Stock image
Missing women on Mount Hood — A 27-year-old woman and her mother, who is visiting from Tennessee, were found safe after they didn’t return Sunday from a planned hike in the Lost Lake Wilderness on Mount Hood. The Gresham Police Department says Lauren Zanko and her mother spent the night their car after it got stuck in the snow on Lolo Pass Road. The women were not prepared for an overnight trip.
Conspiracy to distribute pot outside of Oregon — Two men who grew marijuana in Oregon and shipped it to Texas, Virginia and Florida have entered guilty pleas in federal court to marijuana distribution and money laundering conspiracy charges. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Portland says Cole Griffiths, of Hood River, and Raleigh Lau, of Portland, pleaded guilty Monday. Prosecutors say Griffiths shipped pot to Florida that was cultivated and stored in Hood River. He concealed the drug proceeds by smuggling cash back to Oregon in the mail or in luggage on commercial flights. He also concealed proceeds through vehicle sales. Prosecutors say Lau manufactured over 1,000 marijuana plants and conspired to ship them for sale in Texas and Virginia. Two other defendants have pleaded guilty. Another is set to plead guilty while a final defendant has a trial set. None of those charged were licensed by the state to grow marijuana.
11 arrests on blocked railroad tracks — Police arrested 11 protesters who had blocked railroad tracks in northwest Portland since Sunday and demanded local action in response to climate change. The protesters were part of a local chapter of Extinction Rebellion, an environmental activist group based in the United Kingdom that has been staging climate demonstrations for about two weeks. The Portland protesters had been occupying a small portion of track near a terminal owned by Zenith Energy, a Houston-based company that stores millions of barrels of crude oil, petroleum products and vegetable oils worldwide. The Portland Police Bureau says officers were called by the property owners and that, after several warnings to leave, protesters were arrested on second-degree criminal trespass charges.