Arizona man charged with transporting 5 kilograms of fentanyl to Montgomery County

A 22-year-old Arizona man was arrested this week in Montgomery County and charged with transporting five kilograms of fentanyl with a street value of more than $1.6 million, authorities said Friday.

Jorge Valdez-Rosas was arrested Wednesday at a hotel in Upper Merion Township after a surveillance operation based on information that traffickers were smuggling drugs from Mexico to a destination in the King of Prussia area, authorities said.

Valdez-Rosas arrived at the hotel Tuesday with a large duffle bag and then was seen exiting a hotel room with the same duffle bag. He was stopped and the contents of the duffle bag allegedly field-tested positive for fentanyl. Valdez-Rosas was trying to orchestrate a meeting with a third party to deliver the drugs on behalf of others, authorities said.

He was charged with possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance, conspiracy, and criminal use of a communications facility, and was being held at the Montgomery County Correctional Facility in lieu of $500,000 cash bail.

“This quantity of drugs, 11 pounds, equates to approximately 166,666 individual doses of fentanyl, and by intercepting this delivery of fentanyl into our communities, we have saved countless lives by preventing significant fatal overdoses,” Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele said in a statement.

Valdez-Rosas was arrested as part of an investigation involving members of the Upper Merion Police Department, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, and the Montgomery County Detective Bureau, which is part of the Liberty Mid-Atlantic High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area coordination initiative.