Selling Counterfeit Pills with Fentanyl Results in 11 Years in Prison
Man Sold Fake Oxycodone Pills Near High School
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – A Liberty, Mo., man was sentenced in federal court today for distributing fentanyl from his apartment near Liberty High School and for illegally possessing a firearm.
Daniel I. Ramirez, 22, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Gary A. Fenner to 11 years in federal prison without parole.
On Oct. 19, 2021, Ramirez pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute fentanyl, one count of distributing fentanyl within 1,000 feet of a public school, and one count of possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug-trafficking crime. Co-defendant Valerie Rios, 23, also of Liberty, has pleaded guilty to the same charges and awaits sentencing.
Ramirez admitted that he participated in a conspiracy to distribute fentanyl from March 4 to April 30, 2021. According to court documents, Rios sold an undercover detective fentanyl on three occasions between March 4 and March 9, 2021.
Law enforcement officers executed a search warrant at Ramirez’s apartment on South Forrest Avenue in Liberty, which is near Liberty High School, on March 12, 2021. Officers found a plastic bag that contained 184 counterfeit oxycodone pills that were actually fentanyl, a Smith and Wesson .45-caliber handgun with a loaded magazine, four magazines and ammunition, and $12,340 in cash.
This case was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Clay County, Mo., Sheriff’s Department, the Liberty, Mo., Police Department, and the Missouri State Highway Patrol.
