SAN JOSE — A Monterey County man who was caught running a drug business twice, in 2019 and 2020, has been sentenced to 10 years in federal prison, court records show.

Manuel Angel Vargas, 48, pleaded guilty to multiple methamphetamine charges, as well as to selling heroin and possessing a firearm and ammunition, court records show. He was sentenced in June by U.S. District Judge Beth Labson Freeman.

Prosecutors say Vargas, a “self-admitted Norteño” who went by “Droopy de Castroville,” was caught in September 2019 with 10 pounds of methamphetamine, one pound of heroin, more than $12,000 in cash, and a loaded firearm in his Castroville home. In a subsequent July 2020 police raid, authorities allegedly found $3,840 in cash, about a half-pound of heroin, and roughly three-quarters of a pound

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