Roger Bleen Pleads Guilty to Drug and Firearm Charges in Delaware
A Smyrna man faces up to 35 years in prison after pleading guilty to cocaine distribution and illegal gun possession.
2 reports on this incident · first at Aug 19, 2026, 6:56 p.m. ET
Earlier reports
Aug 19, 2026, 6:56 p.m. ETFirst report
Smyrna Man Pleads Guilty to Cocaine Distribution and Illegal Firearm Possession
A 43-year-old Smyrna, Delaware, man, Roger Bleen, has pleaded guilty to distributing cocaine and illegally possessing a firearm as a convicted felon, according to a press release issued on August 7, 2026 by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Delaware. The release states that Bleen entered the plea the day before the announcement and that Chief U.S. District Judge Colm F. Connolly accepted it. The matter is docketed in federal district court as Case No. 1:26-cr-81.
According to court documents described in that August 7, 2026 release, Bleen sold approximately 273 grams of cocaine on October 14, 2025, outside a convenience store in Kent County. The release describes that sale as part of a months-long pattern of trafficking in which Bleen sold cocaine on multiple occasions, and says he operated within a larger cocaine- and fentanyl-trafficking organization orchestrated in part by an associate, Nugi Nichols, who pleaded guilty to cocaine distribution on June 1, 2026. As part of that broader investigation, a search warrant executed at Bleen's Smyrna residence turned up a loaded 9mm Smith & Wesson M&P Shield EZ handgun in his bedroom closet. As a previously convicted felon, Bleen was prohibited from possessing firearms.
The plea was announced by Benjamin L. Wallace, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Delaware, whose office prosecuted the case. "Drug traffickers who arm themselves compound the danger they pose to our communities," U.S. Attorney Wallace said in the release. "Bleen sold cocaine over many months as part of a broader drug-trafficking network. Today's plea—made possible through the teamwork of the DEA, FBI, and the Dover Police Department—reflects our commitment to stop the flow of drugs into Delaware and to hold felons accountable when they choose to possess guns."
Timothy S. Flaherty, the Drug Enforcement Administration's Special Agent in Charge for Philadelphia, said in the same release: "This investigation removed an armed drug trafficker from our community." FBI Special Agent in Charge Jimmy Paul said, "Roger Bleen profited from selling cocaine in our community," adding that the guilty plea "reflects the seriousness of Bleen's crimes and the harm his drug trafficking inflicted on Delaware." Dover Police Department Chief Thomas A. Johnson, Jr. said, "Bleen, Nichols, and every other predator trafficking drugs into our communities are a direct threat to our families, our visitors, and our most vulnerable residents."
Bleen pleaded guilty to distribution of cocaine and possession of a firearm as a prohibited person. He faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison on the drug charge and 15 years in prison on the firearm charge. The U.S. Attorney's Office notes that actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties, and that a federal district court judge will determine the sentence after taking into account the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors. Sentencing is scheduled for December 21, 2026.
The Drug Enforcement Administration, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Dover Police Department investigated the case. Related court documents are available on the website of the District Court for the District of Delaware or on PACER by searching for Case No. 1:26-cr-81-CFC.
Was this report accurate and useful?
Sources
Revision history
- Version 119 Aug 2026, 23:23current
First published.
- Version 119 Aug 2026, 22:56current
First published.
How we work
This site models an investigative reporter rather than a wire desk. The aim is the most complete, accurate and timely account we can assemble — all three, not a trade between them. Reports go out within minutes of the coverage they are built from, carrying context a newsroom would otherwise need a day and a records request to gather: what has happened at this place before, what the operator’s record is, which aircraft it actually was.
Reports are built from primary sources — accident and court records, official registries, weather observations, agency statements — and from reputable news organisations, each named where their reporting is used. Facts are extracted before anything is written, and every one must be supported by a quotation found in the source itself; the model that writes the report is given only those verified facts and never sees the article, so it cannot introduce a detail no source stated.
Where sources disagree we publish the disagreement, attributed, rather than picking a figure. Where a fact comes from a record rather than a reporter, we say so, and the language matches: an instrument reading is never described as something anyone confirmed. Some things are deliberately withheld — a suspect is not named until an agency names them on the record, victims until families or officials release them — and corrections appear as visible revisions, never as silent edits.
None of that makes a report true. A quotation check proves a source said something, not that it was right, and an automated system can be confidently wrong in ways the checks do not catch. If something here is wrong, the feedback above is how it gets found. The full methodology, including what we refuse to publish.