After authorities found more than 12 pounds of meth in his car on Monday, a California man who was charged as a part of a massive drug conspiracy with connections to the Sinaloa Cartel and who transported methamphetamine and other drugs to Butte for distribution, admitted to trafficking, according to U.S. Attorney Jesse Laslovich.
Raymond Perez Ramos, 31, of Long Beach, California, entered a guilty plea to the charge of possessing meth with the purpose to distribute it.
Ramos is required to serve a minimum of 10 years to life in jail, pay a fine of $10 million, and be under supervision for at least five of those years.
Judge Kathleen L. DeSoto, a U.S. Magistrate, presided. Judge Dana L. Christensen of the U.S. District Court scheduled the sentencing for August 14. Ramos was set free while more actions were taken. The U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory considerations will be taken into account by the court before imposing any punishment.
In court filings, the prosecution said that Ramos and co-defendant Travis Bridger Soderberg had meth in their possession with the intention of selling it between around October 2019 and November 2020 in Butte.
Due to his conviction in the case, Soderberg had previously received an eight-year prison sentence. When Ramos inquired in August 2020 about potential “work,” he was informed that there was “work” available, but he had to keep quiet about “whatever we got going on.”
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Agents understood “work” to refer to amphetamine delivery. To be redistributed, Ramos shipped 12.5 pounds—roughly 5,600 doses—of meth to Montana in November 2020.
When Ramos got to Montana, the police pulled over his car and found meth stashed behind the door.
22 more people have been found guilty at the federal level as a result of the multi-agency undercover investigation into a large-scale drug trafficking organization with connections to the Sinaloa Cartel, based in Butte.
Ryan G. Weldon, an assistant U.S. attorney, is handling the case prosecution.
With assistance from the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Homeland Security Investigations, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Montana Highway Patrol, the Southwest Montana Drug Task Force, Butte Silver Bow Law Enforcement, and the Butte Silver Bow County Attorney’s Office, the investigation was led by the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Division of Criminal Investigation of the Montana Department of Justice.
The Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) is conducting an investigation that includes this prosecution.
OCDETF uses a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach that combines the strengths of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies against criminal networks in order to identify, disrupt, and dismantle the highest-level drug traffickers, money launderers, gangs, and transnational criminal organizations that pose a threat to the United States.
