A man has been sentenced to ten years in federal prison for attempting to traffic cocaine into Chicago. In February 2022, Jose Ramirez-Arellano arranged for a parcel containing approximately five kilograms of cocaine to be shipped from southern California to his residence in Chicago. Law enforcement intercepted the package, replaced the real cocaine with sham cocaine, and delivered it to Ramirez-Arellano’s home. 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 about five kilograms of cocaine that same month. Authorities seized two parcels of bulk cash linked to him, totaling approximately $43,550.
Ramirez-Arellano, 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 Chicago Police Department and the Illinois National Guard Counter-Drug Task Force provided valuable assistance.
“The cocaine that defendant attempted to possess and distribute represented thousands of street-level user quantities of this highly addictive and dangerous narcotic,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Michelle Parthum argued in the government’s sentencing memorandum. “Had defendant succeeded in receiving and distributing that cocaine, it would have exacerbated the crisis of addiction and cocaine-related harms and deaths.”
