AURORA | Members of a U.S. District Court jury this week found a pair of Denver men guilty of distributing mass amounts of methamphetamine across the country, the U.S. Attorney for Colorado announced on Friday.
Omar Gonzalez-Hernandez, who is in his late 20s, and Jeremiah Serr, who is in his early 20s, were each found guilty of one count of possessing and trying to distribute more than a pound of meth in a local federal court on March 5, according to a press release from prosecutors.
Serr was found guilty of an additional charge of possessing and trying to distribute more than 50 grams of pure meth.
Gonzalez-Hernandez and Serr were indicted for their crimes along with three other people last summer. The others named in the indictment have pleaded guilty to the drug charges levied against them and are currently awaiting sentencing, according to U.S. Attorneys.
During a five-day trial that concluded this week, prosecutors explained the group was selling massive amounts of meth to a buyer in Virginia, where the drug can yield much higher prices.
“Methamphetamine continues to be an epidemic in Colorado and is a priority for our narcotics section,” U.S. Attorney Jason Dunn said in a statement. “Pure meth can cause overdoses and death. By removing meth dealers from our streets and targeting their source of supply, we continue to protect the people of Colorado.”
Deaths spurred by meth overdoses have spiked across Colorado in recent years, according to Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment data. Colorado’s drug fatalities surpassed 1,000 for the first time on record in 2017 — hundreds more than the state’s traffic death totals that year.
But provisional data show total drug-related deaths in the state dipped below 1,000 once again last year with 967 drug fatalities in 2018.
Fatal methamphetamine overdoses in the tri-county area covering Aurora — Adams, Arapahoe and Douglas Counties — rose from 59 in 2017 to 68 last year, according to the provisional CDPHE data.
Meth deaths increased in Arapahoe and Douglas counties last year, and slightly dipped in Adams County.
In Arapahoe County, 32 people fatally overdosed on meth last year, data show. Meth overdoses in the county had stayed flat at 19 in both 2016 and 2017.
People from Virginia, Kansas, California, Texas and Colorado testified at the recent federal court trial, prosecutors said. Officials from the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office, Denver Police Department, a local drug task force, and local police from Virginia investigated the crime ring.
The five drug traffickers were charged with distributing meth between October 2016 and May 2018.
Kansas Highway patrollers pulled over Serr on Interstate 70 on Oct. 17, 2016 after recording him traveling 119 miles per hour on the highway headed east, according to prosecutors. Officials found a pound of meth in Serr’s vehicle.
Nearly 18 months later, officials from the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office apprehended another person involved in the drug ring near the eastbound stretch of I-70 in Bennet. Investigators arrested Joanna Zarate-Suarez, who is in her late 20s or early 30s, for traveling with four pounds of meth in her vehicle.
One pound of meth can be broken into about 453 gram units, one of which is typically what is sold on the black market, according to prosecutors.
Gonzalez-Hernandez and Serr will be sentenced in U.S. District Court on May 19.
They each face a sentence between 10 years and life in prison, a $10 million fine, or both, according to court documents.