It was billed as an “astronomical” drug bust : barrels of liquid heroin linked to the Sinaloa cartel, enough for 50 million fatal doses, hidden in a U-Haul truck in suburban Tigard.

A federal prosecutor called it an “insane amount” never before seen in Oregon.

But there was just one problem — it was mostly water. And it wasn’t deadly. Not even close.

On Thursday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office agreed to recommend a sentence of time served for one of six men charged in the case after a judge reduced the seriousness of the offense based on the minimal amount of heroin recovered.

The Oregon State Police crime lab tested the liquid to determine only what type of drug was present in the seven barrels seized from the U-Haul truck. It never conducted a quantitative analysis.

That’s what a fore

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