Two Inver Grove Heights men are facing felony drug charges after authorities busted them with almost six pounds of cocaine — far more than was seized in the county in all of 2012 — and two pounds of meth with a combined value of about $150,000, the Dakota County attorney's office said.

Mike Sanchez, 27, and Josue I. Ledezma-Lopez, 22, were each charged Thursday with two counts of first-degree controlled substance crimes. They are being held in the county jail on $500,000 bail.

The criminal complaint said the Dakota County Drug Task Force learned that Sanchez was trafficking in large amounts of drugs directly from Mexico. On Tuesday, a confidential informant ordered meth and cocaine from him and Sanchez agreed to deliver it to Brooklyn Park.

A state trooper pulled him over Tuesday in Golden Valley as he was headed to make the delivery, the complaint said. Sanchez gave the trooper permission to search his car. The trooper found a backpack behind the driver's seat and inside was a brick of cocaine — about 2.2 pounds. Sanchez denied that it was his backpack.

Later that day, investigators searched Sanchez's home. Lopez was there and was arrested. Authorities found more cocaine, as well as almost three pounds of meth, about an ounce of marijuana and $22,000 in cash. Authorities said the cocaine had a street value of about $120,000, the meth about $30,000.

County Attorney Jim Backstrom said in a news release that the amount of cocaine seized Tuesday was more than three times the amount seized in all of 2012 in Dakota County.

The next court hearings for Sanchez and Lopez are Aug. 19.

Pat Pheifer