November 20, 2025 01:05 PM UTC

When Spin Fails, Colorado Republicans Focus on Outright Lies

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• by: Colorado Pols

Colorado Republicans are trying so hard to promote their nonsense narrative about unchecked crime in our state that they are refusing to even acknowledge the good work of state and local law enforcement agencies.

Officials this week detailed the largest seizure of methamphetamine in state history — including a whopping 733 pounds found in Lakewood concealed in boxes in chayote squash — that have resulted in indictments of 15 people connected to alleged drug kingpin Marco Antonio De Silva Lara.

As Colorado Public Radio reports:

David Olesky, the Drug Enforcement Administration special agent in charge, said the criminal organization was based in Denver, but its operations touched Adams County, Lakewood and Arvada.

The first in a series of busts for this investigation was last year, when agents seized 96 pounds of methamphetamine from a Greyhound bus in Vail in December, McNeilly said. In February, agents seized 101 pounds of methamphetamine and a half kilogram of fentanyl powder from another member of the organization.

The big bust came later. In April, officers found 733 pounds of methamphetamine in a home in Lakewood, with quarter-pound bundles hidden in the corners of filled boxes of pair squash produce imported from Mexico. Officials said that was the largest single seizure of methamphetamine in Colorado.

In August, more methamphetamine was seized from a home in Arvada. During the course of the investigation, officials also found $156,000, 22 firearms and various controlled substances, like cocaine and fentanyl.

U.S. Attorney Peter McNeilly says the big meth bust was the result of a years-long investigation between multiple federal and local law enforcement agencies. According to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s office in Colorado:

The investigation is being handled by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), and ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations. The Adams County Sheriff’s Office, the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office, and the Arvada Police Department each made significant contributions to this case. [Pols emphasis]

Earlier this week, local and federal law enforcement officials announced another massive seizure of 198 kilograms of fentanyl — enough for about 1.7 million pills — found in a storage unit in Highlands Ranch. The bust includedl 12 kilograms of fentanyl powder and 2.5 pounds of methamphetamine. As Colorado Public Radio reported on Monday:

It was a Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI) operation that led to the unpaid storage unit and the discovery of the massive amount of drugs. [Pols emphasis]

In April, CBI had identified and wiretapped a drug trafficking organization linked to the Sinaloa cartel that was funneling drugs into Colorado. That investigation led to multiple arrests. One of the people arrested in the operation was the owner of the unit.

The Drug Enforcement Agency made sure to give credit to the CBI, and even quoted Colorado Gov. Jared Polis in Monday’s press release:

Colorado Governor Jared Polis praised the hard work of federal, state, and local law enforcement.

“I want to thank everyone who helped us with the largest successful fentanyl seizure in Colorado history. Getting more of this deadly drug off the streets saves lives. In Colorado, we are cracking down on crime, apprehending dangerous criminals, and keeping our communities safe. I thank the Colorado Bureau of Investigation and our federal partners for working with us to get criminals off of Colorado streets, out of our communities, and ensure Coloradans and families are safe,” said Governor Polis.

Two massive drug busts that removed millions of dollars worth of illicit drugs from Colorado streets should be objectively good news…right?

Well, not if you are Rep. Gabe Evans (R-Ft. Lupton) and right-wing gasbag Ann Coulter, because these big drug busts don’t fit into their “Democrats are soft on crime” narratives.

First of all, it makes absolutely no sense to attempt to argue that a big drug bust means that Colorado is “soft on crime.” The exact opposite is true.

And as we detailed above, both of these massive drug busts in Colorado were the result of joint efforts by local and federal law enforcement agencies. In the fentanyl bust in Highlands Ranch, it was the COLORADO Bureau of Investigation that uncovered the storage unit full of drugs.

Governor Polis made sure to point all of this out, again, in response to the swipes by Evans and Coulter:

When Gabe Evans and Ann Coulter are recycling the same talking points, you know something is off. The record successful seizure they’re trying to politicize is part of an ongoing DEA and Colorado Bureau of Investigation case — CBI agents conducted search warrants and identified suspects in connection with this drug trafficking ring, and we got ‘em!

That social media response from Polis prompted some incredible dipshittery from Congressman Jeff Crank (R-Colorado Springs):

Crank is referencing the antisemitic terror attack in Boulder in June, after which Evans and fellow Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Windsor) also wasted no time participating in the blame game. Their social media finger-pointing quickly backfired when it was revealed that Colorado law enforcement officials did their jobs — and it was federal law enforcement agencies that dropped the ball. As we noted in this space on June 11:

Following the antisemitic terror attack in Boulder just over a week ago that injured 15 people at a march in support of Jewish hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, local Republicans led by freshman Rep. Gabe Evans rushed to lay blame for the attack on Colorado’s so-called “sanctuary state” policies, despite the fact that the accused noncitizen terrorist was in the country on an asylum claim with a valid work permit and would not have raised any particular suspicion. The one exception to accused terrorist Mohamed Saliman’s low profile, as we took note of last week, was an attempt by Saliman to purchase a firearm that was denied by a Colorado Bureau of Investigations (CBI) background check. Not only did Colorado’s background check system successfully prevent the suspect from buy a gun, as FOX 31 originally reported, CBI notified federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement of Soliman’s attempted purchase–after which no action was apparently taken.

Evans tried to double down on his initial comments in response to inquiries from reporters, but those efforts didn’t make him look any less stupid. Jeff Crank also has no problem looking like a moron. He is either unaware that his talking point above was widely discredited, or he just doesn’t care and would rather try to disseminate false information so that he can tell his buddies that he clapped back on social media.

It has been well established that Gabe Evans lies as easily as the rest of us take a breath; it seems that Crank is trying to follow the lead of his colleague from CO-08. The important thing here is that law enforcement officials in Colorado are doing their jobs, and doing them well, even if Evans and Crank sometimes see a homeless person in Denver.

Once upon a time, elected officials on BOTH sides of the political aisle would be quick to praise a successful law enforcement operation anywhere in Colorado. These days, Republicans would rather push falsehoods than praise. Perhaps this should be no surprise when the leader of their party is literally calling for the death of Democratic colleagues in Congress.