Local drug dealer gets hefty prison term after 500g+ of meth found in home
A Jasper County drug dealer received a decades-long prison term after police found hundreds of grams of methamphetamine in his home last year.
Jan Louis Ortiz-Rolon, 26, of Ridgeland, pleaded guilty Thursday to a felony charge of trafficking methamphetamine and was sentenced to 25 years in prison, which is the mandatory minimum for the offense. South Carolina law says the sentence cannot be suspended or reduced via probation. A narcotics team from the Jasper County Sheriff’s Office began investigating Ortiz-Rolon in early 2025 after learning from social media he appeared to be “selling illegal drugs and weapons” from his home in Midway Village, a mobile home community off S.C. 170 (Okatie Highway) nearby the Beaufort-Jasper county line.
Detectives surveilled the home before pulling Ortiz-Rolon over in his gray Audi as he left the neighborhood, according to the 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Office. Inside his car, police found multiple fentanyl pills, and after securing a warrant to search his home, inside they discovered digital scales, AK-style magazines, ammunition and more than 537 grams of methamphetamine, prosecutors said.
In addition to his methamphetamine trafficking offense, Ortiz-Rolon was initially charged with trafficking cocaine, trafficking fentanyl and possession of a weapon during a violent crime, all of which were felonies. Those three charges were dismissed by “prosecutorial discretion” at the same time as his guilty plea, according to Jasper County court records.
Circuit Court Judge Marvin Dukes handed down the sentence Thursday in the Jasper County Courthouse.
“The volume of drugs recovered in this case posed a serious threat to public safety,” Assistant Solicitor Vince Drago, who prosecuted the case, wrote in a press release. “This case was the result of careful surveillance and solid police work. This guilty plea reflects the strength of the evidence and our office’s commitment to removing dangerous substances from our streets.”
