LAS CRUCES, New Mexico — A Las Cruces man has pleaded guilty to federal fentanyl-trafficking and firearms charges, the US Attorney's Office for the District of New Mexico announced on Thursday, November 5, 2026. Kenneth Manuel Aguirre, 44, pleaded guilty to three counts of being a felon in possession of a firearm, possession with intent to distribute fentanyl, and using and carrying a firearm during and in relation to a drug-trafficking crime.
At sentencing, Aguirre faces not less than five years and up to a term of life in federal prison, prosecutors said. No sentencing date was provided in the announcement. The guilty plea resolves a case built on two encounters in the summer of 2025 — one in which, according to court documents, Aguirre knowingly possessed two firearms and ammunition despite a previous felony conviction, and a second in which officers stopping him on an active arrest warrant found fentanyl and a loaded gun in his car.
Source: US Attorney's Office, District of New Mexico (justice.gov)
July 5, 2025: two firearms despite a felony record
According to court documents cited by the US Attorney's Office, on July 5, 2025, Aguirre knowingly possessed two firearms and ammunition even though he had previously been convicted of a felony offence punishable by more than one year in prison. As a convicted felon, he was prohibited under federal law from possessing firearms or ammunition at all. That conduct underlies the felon-in-possession counts in the plea. When Aguirre was first charged federally earlier in the case, prosecutors alleged that on the same July 5 date he had pointed a handgun at three victims during an incident outside his residence in Las Cruces — an allegation made at the charging stage; the November 5 plea announcement itself lists the counts of conviction as the three felon-in-possession counts, the fentanyl count and the firearm-during-trafficking count.
August 13, 2025: a warrant stop in Doña Ana County
On August 13, 2025, law-enforcement officers stopped Aguirre in Doña Ana County because of an active arrest warrant. During a search of his vehicle, agents recovered approximately 57.4 grams of fentanyl from the centre console, along with a loaded firearm, according to the US Attorney's Office. The fentanyl count in the case was charged as possession with intent to distribute 40 grams or more of a mixture containing fentanyl — the quantity threshold named in the federal indictment — and the amount recovered, 57.4 grams, is above that threshold.
Source: Organ Mountain News, Las Cruces
Las Cruces is the county seat of Doña Ana County and one of New Mexico's largest cities, sitting in the Mesilla Valley near the Texas and Mexico border region, at the junction of Interstate 10 and Interstate 25 — two of the Southwest's main freight and travel corridors. Federal drug cases in the county are prosecuted in the US District Court for the District of New Mexico.
Who investigated and who is prosecuting
The case was investigated by the Las Cruces Resident Agency of the FBI's Albuquerque Field Office, with assistance from the Doña Ana County Sheriff's Office, the Las Cruces/Doña Ana Metro Narcotics unit and the Las Cruces Police Department. Assistant US Attorney Devon Aragon Martinez is prosecuting the case. The plea was announced by First Assistant US Attorney Ryan Ellison and Justin A. Garris, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI's Albuquerque Field Office.
Counts pleaded guilty to: three counts of felon in possession of a firearm; possession with intent to distribute fentanyl (57.4 grams recovered); and using and carrying a firearm during and in relation to a drug-trafficking crime. Penalty range stated by prosecutors: a minimum of five years and a maximum of life in federal prison. Sentencing date: not yet announced.
Background: why the felon-in-possession counts matter
Federal law bars anyone convicted of a felony from possessing firearms or ammunition, and prosecutors in the District of New Mexico regularly pair that charge with drug-trafficking counts when a gun is found alongside drugs. The additional count — using and carrying a firearm during and in relation to a drug-trafficking crime — is the charge that carries the plea's five-year floor: it applies where prosecutors say a firearm was carried in connection with the drug offence, here the loaded firearm recovered from the same vehicle as the fentanyl during the August 13, 2025 stop. Aguirre's guilty plea means there will be no trial on these counts; the remaining question for the court is the sentence.
For readers along the I-10 and I-25 corridors — including the many Punjabi truck drivers who run freight through Las Cruces between El Paso, Albuquerque and the West Coast — the case is a reminder of how federal task-force policing works in the border region: a county warrant stop, a vehicle search, and quantities of fentanyl measured in tens of grams can move a case from state court into the federal system, where sentencing ranges are measured in years to life rather than months.
What happens next
Aguirre will be sentenced by a federal judge at a hearing that had not been scheduled as of the November 5 announcement. At that hearing the court will set a term within the range prosecutors stated — not less than five years and up to life in federal prison. The US Attorney's Office announcement did not specify a sentencing date, any plea-agreement recommendation, or whether additional supervised-release terms will be sought; those details are expected when the sentencing is scheduled.