A Copper Mountain man pleaded guilty Monday, Dec. 12, to a charge of possessing fentanyl with intent to manufacture or distribute. The charge stems from a package containing pills the Summit County Sheriff’s Office intercepted in July.

Anthony Wahl, 41, is scheduled to be sentenced on the Class 3 drug felony on Feb. 13, 2023. Judge Karen A. Romeo said during Wahl’s plea hearing at the Summit County Justice Center in Breckenridge that the charge carries up to a two- to four-year prison sentence and a $500,000 fine.

In exchange for his guilty plea, prosecutors agreed to drop a charge of possessing more than 4 grams of fentanyl, a Class 4 drug felony, according to court documents. Wahl had originally been charged with unlawful distribution, manufacturing, dispensing, or sale of a controlled substance, a Class 1 felony, according to past reporting, but pleaded to the lesser Class 3 felony.

On July 13, the Summit County Sheriff’s Office received information from the U.S. Postal Inspector and Drug Enforcement Administration about a package with pills that were presumed to contain fentanyl, according to a July news release from the Sheriff’s Office.

After receiving the tip, the Sheriff’s Office conducted an undercover investigation. The package being shipped to Edge Employee Housing at Copper Mountain was seized and replaced with a replica, Summit County Sheriff Jaime FitzSimons said in July. Undercover deputies then delivered the replica package to Wahl and arrested him without incident on July 13, the Sheriff’s Office stated at the time.

A search warrant for the package was successfully obtained during the investigation. FitzSimons previously said that the 115 pills seized were “blues,” or counterfeit oxycodone. Fentanyl-laced pills pressed to look like other illicit party drugs is an increasingly common practice, he said.

Kevin Jensen, the public defender representing Wahl, declined to comment.