BOSTON, Mass. - Today, a Fitchburg man received a 10-year federal prison sentence for selling heroin to an individual who was assisting the Drug Enforcement Administration.

EDWIN RAMIREZ, 42, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge F. Dennis Saylor, IV, to 10 years, to be followed by five years of supervised release, and ordered to pay restitution to the government. Ramirez previously pleaded guilty to possession of heroin with the intent to distribute.

Had the case proceeded to trial the Government’s evidence would have proven that in Sept. 2009, a DEA cooperating witness arranged to purchase heroin from Ramirez for $1,800. Ramirez met the witness in Fitchburg and delivered a substance determined to be 19.8 grams of cocaine. When Ramirez was arrested several months later, he had a substance determined to be 15 grams of heroin, packaged for distribution.

Ramirez’s arrest was part of a large-scale investigation undertaken by federal, state and local law enforcement officers into gang and drug activity in Fitchburg. The case resulted in federal charges against 11 individuals in the U.S. District Court, and the charges against some 25 others in state court.

United States Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz, Steven W. Derr, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in New England, and Massachusetts State Police Colonel Marian J. McGovern made the announcement today. The case was investigated by the Massachusetts State Police and the DEA’s Worcester High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Task Force. It was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Karin M. Bell of Ortiz’s Worcester Branch Office.

 

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