United States Drug Enforcement Administration

LAREDO, Texas - Drug Enforcement (DEA) Acting Special Agent in Charge  Steven S. Whipple and United States Attorney Kenneth Magidson announced today Jose Gomez-Ramirez, 32, of Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, has been ordered to prison for his role in a conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute cocaine. Gomez-Ramirez pleaded guilty in May 2013.

Today, U.S. District Judge Diana Saldaña, who accepted the guilty plea, handed Gomez-Ramirez a sentence of 108 months in federal prison to be followed by a five-year-term of supervised release. He was also ordered to forfeit $5,303,660. 

At the hearing, additional testimony was presented regarding his role in the organization. He had transported and delivered 123 kilograms of cocaine to a truck driver who was then to transport the cocaine to Dallas on Feb. 11, 2011. According to court documents, the drug trafficking organization for which Gomez-Ramirez worked transported more than 200 kilograms of cocaine from 2010 to 2011, much of which was intercepted by authorities en route to Dallas from Nuevo Laredo. The organization also attempted to transport more than $1.4 million in cash from Atlanta, Ga., to Nuevo Laredo. 

Gomez-Ramirez will remain in custody pending transfer to a U.S. Bureau of Prisons facility to be determined in the near future.

The case is the result of a four-year Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force investigation dubbed Operation Roadblock led by the Drug Enforcement Administration with the assistance of Homeland Security Investigations, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the United States Marshals Service. Assistant U.S. Attorneys James Hepburn and Elizabeth Rabe are prosecuting.