Fentanyl trafficker sentenced for drug laundering through Oregon beauty salon

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — A Mexican national man was sentenced in federal court Friday for his role in a drug laundering scheme involving a Tualatin beauty salon.

Luis Antonio Beltran Arredondo, a 35-year-old Mexican national who had been living in Las Vegas, Nevada, was sentenced to 11 years in prison followed by five years of supervised release for conspiring to distribute fentanyl and heroin in Oregon.

According to court records obtained by KOIN 6 News, Arredondo and his fiancée, Jacqueline Paola Rodriguez Barrientos, laundered drug trafficking proceeds through Mazatlán Beauty Salon in Tualatin. An Internal Revenue Service investigation found they also used real estate they had purchased and converted into rental units to launder money.

Investigators found bank records showing Barrientos often made cash deposits in her name or the salon’s name from $10,000 to more than $373,000 each. Over a nine-month period, the deposits amounted to more than $3.5 million.

Arredondo and Barrientos, along with other members of a drug trafficking organization, purchased nine rental properties in Oregon, Washington and Nevada, totaling $4.6 million, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Oregon.

Arredondo directed the purchases to be made with laundered money, and Barrientos created third-party management companies to rent them out. They were also used to launder drug proceeds, and generated about $10,000 a month.

The couple was arrested by U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents in 2022 at their home in Las Vegas. Barrientos is currently serving a 57-month sentence in federal prison for her role in the laundering scheme. Arredondo is the final member of the 12-person organization to be sentenced in this case.

Five of the rental properties have been forfeited and sold, while four remain in forfeiture proceedings.

According to court documents, the rentals include three properties on North Greenwich Avenue in Portland, two properties on Northeast 119th Place in Vancouver, one property on Southwest Woodpecker Lane in Beaverton, as well as a complex on Southwest Hall Boulevard in Beaverton.