Man sentenced for stashing 130 pounds of fentanyl, cocaine in Phoenix

PHOENIX (AZFamily) — A man will spend over a decade behind bars after an undercover operation discovered he was stashing around 130 pounds of illegal drugs at a house in Phoenix.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Arizona, shared that 34-year-old Miguel Angel Gaytan-Ramirez, who is an undocumented Mexican citizen living in Phoenix, was sentenced to 151 months in prison for stashing over 90 pounds of fentanyl and over 40 pounds of cocaine last year.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office says that on Jan. 25, 2024, an undercover Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent agreed to purchase 150,000 fentanyl pills from a member of a drug trafficking organization in Mexico. The member told the undercover agent to meet in a parking lot in Phoenix to complete the transaction.

Investigators went to the parking lot and found a Dodge Ram pickup truck where the drug trafficker was located. Gaytan-Ramirez called the undercover agent and said he was in the truck. Investigators soon detained Gaytan-Ramirez.

After he was detained, investigators searched an apartment that Gaytan-Ramirez used to store the narcotics. Investigators found a rifle, approximately 74.9 pounds of fentanyl pills, 17.6 pounds of fentanyl powder and 41.9 pounds of cocaine. Authorities also seized $18,000 that Gaytan-Ramirez made from drug sales.

Gaytan-Ramirez pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute fentanyl in November 2024.

See a spelling or grammatical error in our story? Please click here to report it.

Do you have a photo or video of a breaking news story? Send it to us here with a brief description.