Local Man Sentenced to Federal Prison for Selling Drugs to Portland High School Students

PORTLAND, Ore.—A local man was sentenced to federal prison today for selling drugs to Portland high school students.

Jonathan Ash Clark, 43, of Portland, was sentenced to 24 months in federal prison and six months’ supervised release.

According to court documents, on September 28, 2022, officials at Cleveland High School in Portland contacted the Portland Police Bureau (PPB) to request assistance locating a missing student. School officials told police the student was last seen with Clark who they suspected was involved in distributing controlled substances to students. To quickly locate the student who was possibly at risk, the responding PPB officers requested assistance from PPB’s Narcotics and Organized Crime Unit (NOC) and the Oregon-Idaho High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) Interdiction Task Force (HIT).

Later the same day, NOC and HIT investigators located Clark with a group of students and he was arrested without incident. A search of Clark’s person and belongings returned small quantities of cocaine and MDMA and a digital scale. In an interview after his arrest, Clark admitted to knowingly selling drugs to high school students he referred to as “kids.”

On September 29, 2022, Clark was charged by criminal complaint with distributing and possessing with intent to distribute controlled substances, distributing controlled substances to persons under 21, and using a person under 18 in drug operations. Later, on October 18, 2022, a federal grand jury in Portland indicted Clark on similar charges. On October 10, 2023, Clark pleaded guilty to one count of distributing a controlled substance to a person under 21.

This case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and PPB. It was prosecuted by Scott M. Kerin, Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Oregon.