Bay Area man who hid AR-15 rifle in dishwasher gets 15 years in prison

A federal judge in Sacramento on Tuesday sentenced a 35-year-old Vallejo man to 15 years in prison for drug and firearm offenses.

U.S. District Judge William B. Shubb handed down the decision on Darren Mitchell, for possessing methamphetamine and firearms, Acting U.S. Attorney Kimberly A. Sanchez said in a press statement released Tuesday.

According to evidence presented at a five-day jury trial, Mitchell negotiated a transaction for 1,000 methamphetamine pills with a buyer who testified at trial, Sanchez noted in the statement.

Federal law enforcement agents executed a search warrant at Mitchell’s Vallejo residence a few days later. At the residence, agents encountered two infants who lived there and recovered methamphetamine-laced pills and an industrial pill-pressing machine.

Hidden inside the residence’s dishwasher, agents found a loaded AR-15 assault-style rifle and a loaded Smith & Wesson pistol with an obliterated serial number.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Cameron Desmond and Sam Stefanki prosecuted the case, the product of an investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration, said Sanchez, who leads the U.S. Department of Justice’s Eastern District of California.