Three of the suspects arrested in connection with a cache of guns and drugs found in a downtown Denver hotel room last week now face federal charges in addition to their state cases.
On Friday morning Richard Platt, Gabriel Rodriguez and Ricardo Rodriguez were handed over Friday morning to an agent for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Each faces a count of possession of a firearm or ammunition by a previous offender, and Gabriel Rodriguez also faces a count of methamphetamine possession with intent to distribute.
The city’s downtown detention center confirmed to The Denver Gazette that agent Greg Johnson picked up Richard Platt, Gabriel Rodriguez and Ricardo Rodriguez Friday morning. Court records show initial appearances scheduled for 2 p.m.
The fourth suspect, Kanoelehua Serikawa, remained in local custody as of Friday morning and she does not currently face federal charges.
Serikawa, Gabriel Rodriguez and Ricardo Rodriguez have court appearances in Denver scheduled for Monday at 9:30 a.m., according to the Denver County Court’s online docket.
Platt had an active warrant for his arrest from Douglas County outstanding since December for failing a mandatory drug test as a condition of his bail in a case that includes a felony charge of possession of a weapon by a previous offender.
Online court records show Gabriel Rodriguez has two open cases in Adams County that include charges of possession of a weapon by a previous offender and possession of controlled substances.
Police arrested the four men last week after a hotel housekeeper found firearms in one of the rooms while cleaning. Other hotel employees then linked the room to a car in the lot and saw tactical gear and high-capacity magazines in plain view in the vehicle, according to arrest affidavits released Monday. The hotel is two blocks from Coors Field; the arrests came just days before the Major League Baseball All-Star Game at the stadium.
Details were not provided as to why the suspects were transferred to federal custody. Suspects are usually put on a “federal hold” when the government has an interest in the case and potentially might bring charges against suspects.
Jason Dunn, the former U.S. Attorney for the District of Colorado, said there could be a number of reasons why the three men were transferred to the federal government, including access to investigative resources and possibly harsher penalties.
“It could be for any number of reasons (the federal government is now involved),” Dunn said. “Or it may just be the U.S. Attorney’s Office was trying to help out as a matter of resource allocation for the Denver Police Department and Denver DA’s office, and just simply taking that burden off of them, so they can focus on other issues.”
One of the resources federal prosecutors have easier access to is pretrial detention, which allows authorities to keep suspects in custody if they are considered a threat to the public or a threat to flee, Dunn said.
Additionally, sentence length and penalties are harsher at the federal level for crimes such as those that are gun-related, including a felon in possession of firearms, or drug charges.
Dunn is not involved in the investigation and said he does not know any information about the arrests, but said given the ATF’s involvement, the handover of suspects may be related to the firearms seized.
“I don’t know if these were otherwise legal guns or whether they’d been converted to automatic weapons, or had serial numbers wiped off, or any of those kind of things that would be federal charges,” Dunn said. “They may have been dealing in weapons as well, so obviously that could potentially be a federal crime as well.”
Dunn said the federal government would not have become involved in the case if one of the suspects had an outstanding warrant in another state. Additionally, he said he does not believe it was related to a potential attack at the All-Star Game.
“I only know what I read publicly and based off the statements I’ve seen from Denver and the Denver Police Department is that it was not related to the All-Star Game,” he said.
The FBI in Denver released a statement on Sunday saying in part, “We have no reason to believe this incident was connected to terrorism or a threat directed at the All-Star Game. We are not aware of any threat to the All-Star Game events, venues, players or the community at this time.”
Police ultimately found more than a dozen guns along and evidence of heroin, methamphetamine and ecstasy and thousands of dollars in cash. Sources familiar with the investigation told The Gazette earlier this week police suspect the four’s involvement in a deal that to use weapons as currency to buy illegal drugs.
This content was originally published here.
