Chicago man sentenced after trying to traffic cocaine he had delivered to his home

A man found guilty of attempting to traffic cocaine that was shipped to Chicago learned his sentence last week.

A judge sentenced 33-year-old Jose Ramirez-Arellano to 10 years in federal prison on Jan. 17.

The backstory:

Ramirez-Arellano pleaded guilty last year to a federal drug charge.

His sentence stems from an incident that occurred in February 2022 when Ramirez-Arellano arranged to receive a package that contained about five kilograms of cocaine.

The package was shipped to his residence in Chicago from southern California. 

The package was then intercepted by law enforcement agents, who replaced the real cocaine with fake cocaine. It was then delivered to Ramirez-Arellano's home.

After receiving the package, Ramirez-Arellano took it to a hotel in downtown Chicago, where he was arrested.

Ramirez-Arellano also received a second shipment of about five kilograms of cocaine that same month.  

Law enforcement seized two packages of bulk cash linked to Ramirez-Arellano, which contained about $43,550, prosecutors said.

What they're saying:

Assistant U.S. Attorney Michelle Parthum stated the following 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. Had defendant succeeded in receiving and distributing that cocaine, it would have exacerbated the crisis of addiction and cocaine-related harms and deaths."

The Source: Information from this article was provided by the U.S. Attorney's Office, Northern District of Illinois.

ChicagoNewsCrime and Public Safety