LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — A man is accused of purchasing 10,000 fentanyl pills with the intent of selling them across the Las Vegas Valley, drug investigators allege in court documents.

Officials with the Drug Enforcement Administration said they were surveilling Christopher Perez-Rodriguez as part of an ongoing investigation.

On Jan. 29, agents followed Perez-Rodriguez as he left his home in North Las Vegas and traveled to a hotel on the Las Vegas Strip. Agents lost sight of Perez-Rodriguez, but caught up with him when he returned to his apartment, they said.

Several special agents then approached Perez-Rodriguez as he exited his car. The agents said they found two large plastic bags full of blue pills in the backseat.

The pills were pressed with an “M” and had the number “30” on them. These are similar to counterfeit pills being sold around the Las Vegas Valley that are actually made with illicit fentanyl, investigators said.

Just a few grains of fentanyl can kill a person. (DEA)

Drug cartels are manufacturing Illicit fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid that is 50-to-100 times more potent than morphine, and combining it with other street drugs.

According to the DEA, just one pill can be lethal.

In 2020, 209 people in Clark County died from ingesting illicit fentanyl – just a few grains are enough to kill a person. Out of those 209 deaths, nine were children, the I-Team reported last year.

FILE – This photo provided by the U.S. Attorneys Office for Utah and introduced as evidence in a 2019 trial shows fentanyl-laced fake oxycodone pills collected during an investigation. In a resumption of a brutal trend, nearly 71,000 Americans died of drug overdoses in 2019 according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a new record high that predates the COVID-19 crisis. The numbers were driven by fentanyl and similar synthetic opioids, which accounted for 36,500 overdose deaths. (U.S. Attorneys Office for Utah via AP)

“The pills found in Perez-Rodriguez’s vehicle are consistent with pills previously sized in this investigation that were found to contain fentanyl,” investigators wrote in court documents.

Perez-Rodriguez faces one charge of possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance. He was released without bond.

File images provided.