Oregon paid $2.3M to company running home of alleged gangster/attempted murderer
Oregon Health Authority paid Uplifting Journey LLC $2.3 million from Medicaid for drug treatment while company ran Lake O house police say was home of Venezuelan gang member who kidnapped, tortured
The State of Oregon paid $2,317,496.20 in Medicaid addiction recovery counseling reimbursements over less than a year to a company operating a Lake Oswego group home while it housed an alleged attempted murderer and member of human and drug trafficking Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, according to Oregon Health Authority records obtained by Oregon Roundup via public records request and King County, Washington charging documents.
Officers arrested the alleged gang member, Kevin Daniel Sanabria-Ojeda, of Venezuela, a resident of the house on Bonita Road in Lake Oswego, January 30, on charges of taking part in the kidnapping, torture and attempted murder and robbery of a Seattle woman January 21, 2025. King County, Washington prosecutors allege Sanabria-Ojeda and associates kidnapped Maria Guadalupe Hernandez Velasquez outside her Seattle home, drilled into her hands with a power drill to force her to provide them her PIN for her debit card, robbed her of gold and cash, shot and wounded her and left her for dead in rural Washington. Hernandez, as the victim is identified in charging documents, survived after crawling to safety.
Police later found Hernandez’s car parked approximately a half mile from the Bonita Road house in Lake Oswego, according to police reports.
The house on Bonita Road in Lake Oswego in which Sanabria-Ojeda was living at the time he and his associates allegedly nearly killed Velasquez was used by Portland-based Uplifting Journey LLC, an addiction recovery provider according to the company’s website.
A drug gang house run by a state-funded addiction recovery company owned by a guy named Julius Maximo
As reported by Katie Daviscourt of The Post Millenial, police came to the Bonita Road house some 17 times in 2024 and 2025, which includes the time period when Sanabria-Ojeda was allegedly living in the house managed by Uplifting Journey.
The police reports obtained and posted by The Post Millenial include a visit by Lake Oswego police to the Bonita Road house May 23, 2024 to investigate a neighbor’s complaint of too many occupants,
residents possibly using drugs in the back yard, large numbers of people coming and going at night, possibly entire vans full of people, and people being dazed or drugged walking up and down the streets in blankets or ill-fitting clothing, and on a few occasions groups of young women or girls being present at the address.
The complainant later told police the neighbors saw a woman they “see once a month in backyard looking dirty & scared” and “screaming at night,” according to the report.
On arriving at the Bonita Road house at 5:15 pm May 23, 2024, police talked with two people in the driveway who told them “Julius and Augusta own the house.” The report notes one of the people police encountered at the property was named “KEVIN DANIEL SANABRIAOJEDA,” as the name appears on the report, a “Hispanic or Latino” male.
According to police, “Julius,” identified as a “black or African American” male of medium build, explained to officers “there were usually seven or eight residents in the house who all pay rent, but are often given a grace period as they are new to the area and generally not financially stable on the move in date.” Julius also told police most people live in the house for “a few months at a time” and explained the movement at night “was due to several residents having night jobs or strange working hours such as DoorDash deliveries,” according to the report. Police explained local occupancy limits to Julius and left, according to the report.
Another police visit to Bonita Road occurred February 22, 2025, less than a month after police arrested Sanabria-Ojeda at a Red Roof Inn in Lansing, Illinois, for the kidnapping, torture and attempted murder of Hernandez. According to charging documents, police found a a power drill in plain view in Sanabria-Ojeda’s blue Chevy Malibu.
On February 22, police responded to the Bonita Road house on reports of someone trying to break and enter to retrieve a vehicle belonging to them that was parked in the garage. Officers “found the house is owned by a company called Uplifting Journey,” according to the police report. At one point, according to the report, “The owner of the company pulled up, but refused to be identified.” Police asked the company owner whether he wanted to press charges for the garage window broken during attempts to remove the vehicle from the garage. The company owner “refused and left,” according to the report.
According to Oregon Secretary of State business records, Uplifting Journey LLC, with a principal place of business on Broadway in Portland, was created in November 2023 and owned by two people: Espoir Ntezeyombi and Julius Maximo, both of Portland.
The website for Uplifting Journey says the company provides “compassionate” group and individual therapy “in a nurturing environment. The website describes its co-founder Julius Maximo as a “Passionate CEO dedicated to transforming lives at our mental health company.”
A March 11, 2024, post in the Living in Lake Oswego Facebook group welcomed a Julius Maximo as one of the group’s “new members who have joined in the past week!” The post links to the profile of a Julius Maximo.
$2.3 million from Medicaid to Uplifting Journey
Oregon Health Authority records obtained by Oregon Roundup via public records request show Julius Maximo’s Uplifting Journey LLC began receiving reimbursements via the Oregon Health Plan, the state’s name for its Medicaid program for low-income individuals, for the provision of “Alcohol And/Or Drug Services” April 15, 2024. Reimbursements continued, sometimes multiple per day, until stopping March 14, 2025. The total reimbursed by OHA to Uplifting Journey in less than a year was $2,317,496.20, according to OHA records.
Sanabria-Ojeda, in police custody since his January arrest in Illinois, was formally charged in King County, Washington, for his alleged role in kidnapping, torturing and shooting Hernandez March 11, 2025, three days before OHA’s last reimbursement payment to Uplifting Journey.
The OHA records do not specify whether the reimbursed services were provided at the Bonita Road house, or for individuals living there.
OHA tells Oregon Roundup it has no contract or similar document triggering the initiation of its reimbursements to Uplifting Journey or its sudden termination. Some Oregon Health Plan reimbursements are made pursuant to agreements between regional Coordintated Care Organizations and service providers. Health Share of Oregon, a nonprofit, is the CCO for Multnomah and Clackamas counties.
Health Share did not respond to Oregon Roundup’s repeated requests to discuss Health Share’s role in arranging reimbursements to Uplifting Journey.
Sanabria-Ojeda has not been tried on the charges against him. He remains innocent until proven guilty. The New York Post reports Sanabria Ojeda and another charged in the crime are “illegal immigrants from Venezuela” and subject to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainers for processing of alleged immigration law violations.
Oregon Governor Tina Kotek last week blasted the federal government for limiting use of federal Medicaid funds in a recent budget bill: “Oregonians will see less of their federal tax dollars coming back to our state for things they count on.”
This is just another example of progressive corruption. Large payments to sketchy or fraudulent organizations, accompanied by no oversight. It's waste and corruption by Oregon's government. It's why taxes are high and there is a paucity of funds for normal government services. Do we need more money for roads? Stop the corruption and waste.
What is the difference between the Democratic Party and the drug gangs? I’m totally serious, this is where sanctuary status is leading us: towards a coalition of Democrats and gang bangers and drug cartel people. If the governor refuses to stand up to the Mexican and South American drug gangs, then how can we trust her or any of the other Democrats who run the state of Oregon? This is being spoken by a former Democrat, who now votes independent.