A man from Chicago has been sentenced to ten years in federal prison for attempting to traffic cocaine shipped from California. In February 2022, Jose Ramirez-Arellano arranged to receive a parcel containing approximately five kilograms of cocaine at his residence in Chicago. Law enforcement intercepted the package, replaced the cocaine with a fake substance, and delivered it to Ramirez-Arellano's address. After receiving the package, he took it to a hotel in downtown Chicago where he was arrested.
The investigation revealed that Ramirez-Arellano also received another shipment of around five kilograms of cocaine that same month. Authorities seized two parcels of cash linked to him, totaling approximately $43,550.
Ramirez-Arellano, aged 33, pleaded guilty last year to a federal drug charge. U.S. District Judge Andrea R. Wood imposed the sentence on January 17, 2025, during a hearing in federal court in Chicago.
The sentencing was announced by Morris Pasqual, Acting United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, and Ruth M. Mendonça, Inspector-in-Charge of the Chicago Division of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. The case received valuable assistance from the Chicago Police Department and the Illinois National Guard Counter-Drug Task Force.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Michelle Parthum stated in the government's sentencing memorandum: "The cocaine that defendant attempted to possess and distribute represented thousands of street-level user quantities of this highly addictive and dangerous narcotic." She added that if Ramirez-Arellano had succeeded in distributing the cocaine, it would have worsened addiction issues and related harms and deaths.