CASTROVILLE >> The Monterey County Sheriff’s Office arrested a wanted felon with an outstanding warrant, crediting their K9 dog with making a significant drug bust.

Rodrigo Roy Marquez, 45, from Watsonville was charged with possession of narcotics for sale and for his outstanding arrest warrants, according to a press release.

A deputy found Marquez in a car at about 1:30 a.m. on Wednesday along the 10200-block of Merritt Street in Castroville. The deputy recognized Marquez and found that he had multiple outstanding arrest warrants, including one for being in violation of his post release community supervision.

During the arrest, Monterey County Sheriff K9 “Rocket,” a Belgian Malinois trained in narcotics detection, alerted deputies about the presence of narcotics in the car.

During a search of the car, deputies found 500 fentanyl pills, about 46 grams of cocaine, about 44 grams of crack cocaine and about 36 grams of heroin. The deputies also found indicators that Marquez was selling the drugs.

“Our narcotics trained K9s like Rocket and his handler are valuable assets to our agency and to the residents of Monterey County,” Sheriff Tina Nieto said in a statement. “Rocket’s discovery of 500 fentanyl pills, which have now been taken off the streets by our deputies, have certainly saved lives by preventing them from getting into the hands of the public. We are still in the middle of an opioid crisis and our narcotics detection K9s are doing all they can every day to get these dangerous substances off the streets.”

Marquez was booked into the Monterey County Jail and is on a “no bail” hold for his post release community supervision violation and has an additional $90,000 bail for his other warrants and the new arrest violations.