Repeat fentanyl offender pleads to five-year sentence

By Jon Johnson

jonjohnsonnews@gmail.com

SAFFORD — A man with a history of drug convictions in Graham County is facing five years in state prison after accepting a plea agreement on Tuesday for dealing fentanyl.

Juan Federico Gallegos, 38, entered a guilty plea in Graham County Superior Court to one count of Possession of Narcotic Drugs for Sale, a class 2 felony. Under the terms of the stipulated agreement, Gallegos will serve a five-year sentence with the Arizona Department of Corrections, pay a $2,000 fine, and pay various court assessments. The plea was accepted by Graham County Superior Court Judge Pro Tem Travis W. Ragland. 

The conviction stems from a June 22 traffic stop in Graham County. According to a factual basis recalled by prosecuting Deputy County Attorney John Griffith, during the stop, law enforcement officers observed a large sum of cash in the driver’s side door. After Gallegos consented to a search of the vehicle, officers located approximately 93.5 grams of fentanyl pills (worth between $9,000 and $28,000 on the street). Gallegos subsequently admitted to authorities that he was selling the narcotics.

As part of the plea agreement, additional charges—including Counts II, III, and IV, allegations of prior felony convictions, and an allegation that the crime was committed while on probation—were dismissed by the state. Gallegos’s release conditions were revoked at the change-of-plea hearing, and he is being held non-bondable pending formal sentencing. Attorney Dennis McCarthy represents Gallegos.

The recent arrest occurred while Gallegos was already on probation for a previous fentanyl drug arrest in Thatcher.

In June 2022, Gallegos was pulled over near Highway 70 and 10th Avenue after swerving and failing to signal. Officers noted indicators of impairment during field sobriety tests and subsequently found two pieces of tin foil with partially burnt M30 pills, tutor straws under the driver’s seat, and a baggie containing roughly 70 fentanyl pills weighing 9 grams in the center console.

Though initially facing a harsher charge of possession of a narcotic drug for sale in that incident, Gallegos reached a plea agreement that dismissed the sale charge. He pleaded guilty to DUI-drug, possession of a narcotic drug, and possession of drug paraphernalia, and was placed on supervised probation. On June 23, 2026—one day after his latest arrest—a petition to revoke his probation was filed.

On Tuesday, Judge Ragland accepted Gallegos’s guilty plea after confirming it was entered knowingly and voluntarily, and ordered a pre-sentence report. Formal sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 15 at 8:30 a.m.