Man sentenced to federal prison for supplying heroin in San Antonio

A man has been sentenced to federal prison for supplying heroin for distribution throughout San Antonio.

35-year-old Joe Anthony Ramirez has been sentenced to 15 years in federal prison and after completing his prison term, will be on supervised release for a period of 10 years.

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The US Attorney's Office says that in August 2019, Ramirez pled guilty to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute one kilogram or more of heroin and admitted that he supplied heroin to two separate drug trafficking organizations (DTOs) – his own (Ramirez DTO) and the Sanchez DTO led by Andrew Sanchez, aka "Freight" and "Hakeem."

From May 2018 to March 2019, the Sanchez DTO was responsible for distributing heroin on the east side of San Antonio, says the US Attorney's office. The Sanchez DTO operated daily from about 8 a.m. until 2 a.m. as a full-scale delivery service for heroin to the street-level user. The organization members worked shifts in various roles.

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Ramirez’s own DTO, which included his dad and brother, distributed heroin and cocaine throughout the entire San Antonio area.

In November 2019, Sanchez was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison followed by five years of supervised release. To date, 12 individuals associated with the organizations Ramirez supplied have been convicted and sentenced to prison terms ranging from 41 months to 180 months.