Portland Police have arrested Jacob Ramos, 43, and Shelaleh Rostami, 26, in connection with a string of graffiti incidents in the city.
Ramos was charged with eleven counts of manufacturing firearms, possession of a firearm as a felon, possession of a short barrel rifle, ten counts of criminal mischief in the first degree, and fifty counts of criminal mischief in the second degree. Rostami was charged only for the graffiti.
Mayor Ted Wheeler launched the investigation to track down those responsible for defacing the city's infrastructure. Authorities could identify Rostami via her tag, "THUJA," and connect her to Ramos, "BIER," and carry out search warrants on both residences. The pair's tags were spotted all over the city, including on art murals downtown and in the Central Eastside Industrial District.
Police discovered an Instagram account that portrayed the THUJA tag, and were able to use it to link the graffiti to Rostami. A digital footprint provided by Meta revealed that the posts were coming from a home in nearby Beaverton. In January, authorities executed a search warrant on the house and found numerous graffiti-related items. A look through her phone led them to identify Ramos as BIER.
Police soon obtained a search warrant for his home in East Portland and carried it out. They discovered graffiti equipment, and seventeen illegally possessed guns and body armor. As a convicted felon, Ramos was prohibited from owning any firearms.
Perhaps most striking was the discovery of a "gun manufacturing workshop," which consisted of a "3D printer, specialized jigs, power tools, raw components and scrap materials that were used to print and mill several of the functioning, non-serialized, polymer and metal firearms."
One of Ramos' guns was a non-serialized short barrel AR-15 style rifle. Ghost guns, such as those that are 3D printed, have become a growing issue in the United States, as they are not trackable by authorities.
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