Heroin Trafficker, Raymond Valentino Bowser, Sentenced

          MARQUETTE, MICHIGAN —U.S. District Judge Robert Holmes Bell sentenced Raymond Valentino Bowser, age 31, of Chicago, IL, to 60 months in federal prison and 12 years of supervised release, U.S. Attorney Patrick Miles announced today. Sentencing followed Bowser’s guilty plea, entered last December, to distribution of heroin within 1,000 feet of a playground.

          Bowser was the subject of an investigation conducted by the Gogebic-Iron Area Narcotics Team (GIANT). GIANT made an undercover purchase of heroin from Bowser in Bessemer, Michigan on February 20, 2015. The next day, Bowser was arrested on an unrelated domestic violence charge and taken into custody. During the arrest, Bowser provided a false name and a fake Illinois driver’s license bearing his photo. He was released on bond and then disappeared.

          GIANT learned Bowser’s true identity and that he had a 2008 federal drug conviction in Minnesota. In addition, they learned that Bowser was still on federal supervised release and that he was not supposed to leave Minnesota.

          GIANT next encountered Bowser on April 17, 2015, when they again bought heroin from him in Bessemer. After the purchase, GIANT executed a search warrant at Bowser’s residence in Bessemer and found a part of a brick of heroin that weighed about 35 grams. According to GIANT, this piece of heroin could be broken up into 350 dosage units or "points." Bowser was arrested on State of Michigan charges, and then turned over to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) for federal prosecution.

          Rather than proceeding to the Federal Bureau of Prisons to commence his sentence, Bowser is being transported to Douglas County, Wisconsin, to face heroin-related charges there, and to the U.S. District Court in Minnesota to answer for violations of the terms of supervised release that were imposed on him as a result of his 2008 federal drug conviction.

          This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Maarten Vermaat.

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