ST. THOMAS — United States Attorney Gretchen C.F. Shappert announced Thursday that Tommy Ramirez, 32, originally from the Dominican Republic and residing in St. Thomas, was sentenced to 33 months in prison for conspiracy to distribute cocaine.
According to Ramirez’s plea agreement and other court documents, from January to February of 2018, Ramirez, a multi-kilogram cocaine trafficker, conspired with others to distribute cocaine using WhatsApp, a cellular telephone communication application. He operated through numerous text messages that were seized as part of the federal investigation. The discovered text messages contained communications regarding quantity, pricing, and pictures of the to-be trafficked cocaine. Further, the investigation revealed that the defendant and others coordinated the delivery of between 400 and 500 grams of cocaine in St. Thomas.
This case was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration and the United States Postal Inspection Service. It was prosecuted by the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of the Virgin Islands.
This prosecution is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) investigation. OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level drug traffickers, money launderers, gangs, and transnational criminal organizations that threaten the United States by using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach that leverages the strengths of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies against criminal networks.
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