Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives

DENVER – Daniel Ray Dace, age 25, of Pueblo, was sentenced today by U.S. District Court Judge R. Brooke Jackson to serve 168 months (14 years) in federal prison, followed by 3 years on supervised release for firearm and drug related crimes, the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) announced. Dace, who appeared at the hearing in custody, was remanded at its conclusion.

Dace was indicted by a federal grand jury in Denver on December 20, 2016. He pled guilty to being a felon in possession of firearms, possession of a controlled substance with the intent to distribute, and knowingly carrying a firearm during and in relation of a drug trafficking crime, on April 13, 2017, and was sentenced by Judge Jackson today, June 29, 2017.

According to the stipulated facts contained in the plea agreement, as well as other court documents, on October 4, 2016, the Pueblo Police Department received a report from a caller who observed a red Ford pick-up truck parked in front of what he thought was a vacant house. The caller also saw flashlights inside and around the house. The Pueblo Police Department responded, saw the red truck, and pulled it over. During the traffic stop Dace, the passenger, gave a fake name, and when confronted he admitted he had an outstanding arrest warrant. When he was taken into custody police found a total of $1,812 in cash on the defendant’s person. Located in Dace’s backpack following an inventory search was a .380 caliber semi-automatic pistol and several clear plastic baggies.

The driver of the red truck consented to a search. In the center console officers located another firearm, a .45 caliber pistol. Under the center console – next to where the defendant had been sitting – was a metal box, inside the box was a digital scale, more baggies, and in three separate baggies approximately 331 grams of 99.5% pure methamphetamine.

While detained in Pueblo County Jail, the defendant made several monitored phone calls to his mother, asking her to “go get my guns.” He wanted his guns sold so he could put money “on my book” which is an account used to purchase personal items from a prison store. Agents and officers executed a search warrant on the mother’s residence, and recovered seven additional firearms, all of which he had control over prior to being held in jail. Prior to Dace possessing the firearms, he had been convicted of Possession of a Controlled Substance with the Intent to Distribute, and was given a deferred sentence, making him a prohibited person not allowed to possess firearms. The defendant carried two of his firearms, the .380 caliber pistol and the .45 caliber pistol for protection of himself, the narcotics, and the money from his drug trafficking.

“For a community to breathe and be healthy again, certain people just need to be removed,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Bob Troyer. “With our exceptional partners, we forensically identify those certain people and remove them for good.”

“Dace was well known in the Pueblo community as a dealer in illegal narcotics. Now, he is well known for a long prison sentence,” said ATF Special Agent in Charge Debora Livingston. “We will continue to work closely with Pueblo PD and the U.S. Attorney’s Office to chip away at Pueblo’s drug trafficking and violent crime until these criminals are behind bars or take up shop elsewhere. They aren’t welcome in Pueblo.”

This case was investigated by the Pueblo Police Department and the ATF. The defendant was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Kurt Bohn.