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May 31, 2007

Man gets 20 years for helping to ship cocaine to R.I.

PROVIDENCE -- A Colorado man was sentenced today to 20 years in federal prison for arranging last year with the then-owner of a Providence liquor store to ship 5.5 kilograms of cocaine to Rhode Island at $19,000 per kilogram.

In January 2006 conversations monitored by agents, Fernando Gonzalez-Ramirez, 34, of Aurora, Colo., told Estroredarcio Bernard, who operated California Liquors on Union Avenue in Providence, that a shipment would arrive within a few days.

On Jan. 30, 2006, agents spotted a car with Colorado license plates outside California Liquors and followed the car to a Hathaway Street warehouse. Later that day, Drug Enforcement Administration agents searched the building and found 11 packages, each holding a half-kilogram of cocaine, "which proved to be 87 percent pure."

Bernard and the driver of the Colorado car, Adalberto Bejarano-Gonzalez, were arrested by agents that day. Adalberto Bejarano-Gonzalez is a cousin of Fernando Gonzalez-Ramirez.

Federal agents arrested Fernando Gonzalez-Ramirez in Colorado in August after more investigation.

Federal agents also seized nearly $100,000 in cash: $9,300 from a West Warwick home, $70,500 from California Liquors and $20,000 that Bernard’s wife turned over to the FBI. She was not charged.

-- projo.com staff writer Michael P. McKinney

Posted by Mike McKinney  at 6:49 PM | Permalink

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