Denver Man Sentenced for Fentanyl, Meth Trafficking, Illegal Firearm

A Denver, Colorado, man was sentenced in federal court today for transporting thousands of fentanyl pills and methamphetamine through Kansas City, Mo., aboard a bus and for illegally possessing a firearm.

Ahmad Rashad Rhodes, 45, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Stephen R. Bough to 15 years in federal prison without parole. Rhodes was sentenced as a career offender due to his prior felony convictions.

On December 7, 2023, Rhodes was found guilty at trial of one count of possessing fentanyl with the intent to distribute, one count of possessing methamphetamine with the intent to distribute, one count of possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug-trafficking crime, and one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm.

Officers with the Missouri Western Interdiction and Narcotics Task Force (MoWIN) were conducting interdiction activities at a Kansas City, Mo., bus station on March 20, 2023, when Rhodes arrived on a bus that originated in Los Angeles, California. As passengers disembarked, a police drug-sniffing dog alerted to the scent of illegal drugs in a suitcase in the undercarriage of the bus as well as a backpack in the passenger compartment of the bus. Officers determined both items belonged to Rhodes and contacted him.

After a brief struggle, Rhodes was taken into custody when he admitted to officers he had a gun in the crossbody bag he was wearing. Officers searched Rhodes and found a key chain in his coat with two metal pill holders attached; one pill holder contained 61 blue counterfeit oxycodone hydrochloride pills that contained fentanyl and the other contained 33 blue counterfeit oxycodone hydrochloride pills that contained fentanyl.

In the crossbody bag Rhodes was wearing, officers discovered 3,200 blue counterfeit oxycodone hydrochloride pills that contained fentanyl, a clear plastic baggie that contained 60 grams of pure methamphetamine, and a loaded Smith & Wesson .38-caliber pistol. Officers searched the rest of Rhodes's luggage and found a digital scale, over 100 unused small, plastic baggies and marijuana.

Rhodes told officers he was enroute to Louisville, Kentucky, and was fleeing from Colorado due to a pending drug-trafficking case in which he was set to be sentenced.

Under federal law, it is illegal for anyone who has been convicted of a felony to be in possession of any firearm or ammunition. Rhodes has eight prior felony convictions related to the use or trafficking of illegal drugs, including two convictions in Colorado to which he pled guilty and then failed to appear for sentencing, and a prior felony conviction for illegally possessing a firearm.

According to court documents, Rhodes has spent most of his adult life under some sort of criminal justice sentence or supervision, meaning that nearly all of his violations of the law were committed while he was being supervised for a previous crime.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Megan A. Baker and Gregg Coonrod. It was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Kansas City, Mo., Police Department.