A man who sped away from police on Interstate 5 and threw two large bricks of packaged heroin out the driver’s window during the chase was sentenced Wednesday to six years in federal prison after pleading guilty to a trafficking charge. of drugs.

Francisco Javier Paredes Villaseñor, 24, apologized to U.S. District Judge Michael H. Simon and the “people of the United States” for his “misconduct.”

He told Simon that he was under the influence of methamphetamine most of the time before his arrest on June 21, 2023, at the Spirit Mountain Casino.

“Today, now that I can think clearly, I feel a lot of remorse for the things I have done,” he said.

He pleaded guilty to possession with intent to distribute heroin.

According to court records, federal agents seized an assortment of methamphetamine, counterfeit fentanyl-laced pills and three unloaded firearms from his third-floor room at the Salem Roadway Inn after Paredes-Villasenor’s arrest.

They also found a black notebook with “Write It Down” on the cover, an apparent ledger that contained handwritten lists of alleged drug deals by date, name and cash received, according to prosecutors.

The investigation into Paredes-Villasenor began when police attempted to stop a black Kia Optima traveling north on I-5 near Albany. The car initially slowed but then accelerated, reaching speeds of 80 to 90 mph.

The driver threw two packages of heroin wrapped in black tape, for a total of approximately one kilogram of drugs, prosecutors said. The Benton County Sheriff’s Office recovered the heroin, according to court records.

The driver escaped, but his car was found abandoned in Salem, with his Mexican passport in the center console, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Peter Sax.

Four days later, agents arrested Paredes Villaseñor at the Spirit Mountain Casino. They found a loaded black 9mm handgun in a Nissan Sentra he had driven to the casino and then searched his hotel room after finding a key card among his possessions.

In the room, federal anti-narcotics investigators recovered 2,654 grams of methamphetamine stored in an orange bucket, about 30 grams of counterfeit oxycodone pills, $2,360 in cash, and two unloaded rifles and a shotgun.

— Maxine Bernstein covers federal courts and criminal justice. Contact her at 503-221-8212, [email protected], follow her on @maxoregonianor in LinkedIn.

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