Colorado drug dealer who had 45,000 fentanyl pills, thousands of grams of meth and cocaine pleads guilty

A 27-year-old man who lives on Colorado's Eastern Plains has pleaded guilty to numerous drug dealing and gun charges. That's according to the U.S. Attorney's Office, which shared a news release on Tuesday about the case against Mario Rocha.

Authorities began investigating alleged criminal activity by Rocha in the town of Rocky Ford last summer. The U.S. Attorney's Office says Rocha had been dealing drugs, including cocaine, methamphetamine and fentanyl. After obtaining a search warrant in August, the attorney's office says FBI agents went to Rocha's home and found large quanities of those three drugs and determined that he intended to sell them. They also found more than a dozen guns including a short-barreled shotgun and a short-barreled rifle.

Rocha is scheduled to be sentenced on May 29 on the following charges:

- possessing controlled substances with the intent to distribute them
- knowingly being a felon in possession of a firearm or ammunition
- possessing a firearm in furtherance of drug trafficking
- possession of an unregistered short-barreled rifle
- possession of an unregistered short-barreled shotgun

In the FBI raid on Rocha's home, which was done in coordination with Rocky Ford police, agents recovered the following:

- 1,236 grams of meth
- 1,169 grams of cocaine
- 4742.3 grams of fentanyl (authorities say there were approximately 45,000 pills)