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Colorado man who used pill presses to make, sell fentanyl sentenced to 145 years
A Colorado man was sentenced to 145.5 years in state prison Friday after police discovered six pill presses, two 3D-printed semi-automatic guns, and baggies of fentanyl pills and cocaine powder scattered throughout his Aurora residence last year.
The jail term for 33-year-old Tashon Roberts was ordered four months after a Denver jury convicted him on four counts related to the manufacture, possession and distribution of fentanyl.
The jury also found Roberts guilty of child abuse for each of the three children who were living in the home at the time of his arrest. One of the children tested positive at a local hospital for fentanyl through a urine sample, according to the arrest affidavit in Roberts's case.
The home was one of two in Aurora which Denver prosecutors believed Roberts and his team produced millions of fentanyl pills -- as many as six-hundred thousand per month -- between January and August of 2024. The pills were distributed throughout the Denver metro area, as stated by the Denver District Attorney's Office in a press release.
The home in the 1800 block of Olathe Street in Aurora that was raided in May 2024 by local and federal agents as part of a fentanyl pill manufacturing operation. A 33-year-old man, Tashon Roberts, was sentenced Friday to 145.5 years in the Colorado Department of Corrections.
CBS
Denver police officers, the Aurora SWAT team, and agents from both the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration Homeland Security Investigations donned protective suits and raided Roberts's home and drug "laboratory" in the 1800 block of Olathe Street on May 1, 2024. Aside from three pill presses found in a room dedicated to that process, others were found in a closet and in the unfinished garage. Some of the presses had white powder loaded in the hoppers.
Plastic baggies of fentanyl pills were found throughout the home. Once was floating in the toilet tank, according to the affidavit. Roberts and three other adults were taken into custody. The three children were turned over to Arapahoe County Department of Human Services.
That raid occurred two months after a woman was questioned by Denver officers after she left the home. Officers began conducting surveillance on the home after receiving tips from other drug case defendants. The woman arrived in an Uber, according to the affidavit. When she left, an unknown black man walked to curb and looked both ways along the street, presumably looking for any law enforcement vehicles following the Uber. The surveilling officers avoided detection and managed to pull over the Uber driver for not using a turn signal. The woman in the rear passenger seat was arrested for drug possession and also named Roberts and others in the Olathe home as her suppliers of several years.
Tashon Roberts following his arrest last year on drug charges.
Denver District Attorney's Office
One of Roberts's companions in the Olathe drug-making operation was 35-year-old Coleman Phillips. All but one felony drug distribution charge against Phillips was dropped in October of last year. He was release on a $500 cash bond. He has not been sentenced yet.
Another adult arrested as a result of the Olathe raid was Imani Hale. The 29-year-old pleaded not guilty to felony drug and child abuse charges in April. She is scheduled for jury trial in September.
The fourth adult from the Olathe raid was not identified in the affidavit.
An HSI agent in El Paso, Texas, provided Denver investigators with information about Roberts's purchase of at least one pill press from a China-based website in 2021 and 2022. The website, was sanctioned in 2023 by the U.S. Department of Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control and shut down.
The die molds or stamps from the pill presses in the Olathe home were removed by a Denver detective. They showed an imprint of "M30," reflecting the crew was producing counterfeit oxycodone pills.
The presses were destroyed by the Aurora Fire Department and disposed of, per the affidavit.
The second Aurora home used as part of the team's pill production was not referenced in the original affidavit, suggesting investigators did not discover it until after Roberts was arrested.
"We are pleased to hear that Mr. Roberts, who knew that what he was doing greatly endangered lives in our city, will be off the streets for many years," stated Denver Police Chief Ron Thomas after Roberts was found guilty. "The warning 'One Pill Can Kill' is absolutely true, and the dismantling of this fentanyl pill-making operation has potentially saved lives by ending a significant supply of fentanyl pills into our community. Our investigators did an incredible job uncovering the operation and those behind it, and we will continue aggressively pursuing anyone manufacturing or dealing illicit narcotics in Denver."
