FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE	CONTACT: Lauren Horwood
June 20, 2011	PHONE: (916) 554-2706
www.usdoj.gov/usao/cae	usacae.edcapress@usdoj.gov
Docket #: 2:08-cr-357-WBS

                SACRAMENTO, Calif. — United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner announced that Hubert Mario Ramirez, also known as Mario Sanchez-Licea, 34, of Michoacán, Mexico, was sentenced today by United States District Judge William B. Shubb to 11 years and five months in prison for his involvement in a drug conspiracy that involved 13 people, multiple firearms, and significant quantities of marijuana and methamphetamine.

                Ramirez and others were arrested after a three-month investigation into marijuana cultivation on public lands. According to court documents, Ramirez worked with Miguel Villa‑Contreras, Adrian Ortega-Diaz, and others to grow marijuana and distribute methamphetamine in Northern California. Ramirez and his co-conspirators were charged with running two marijuana grows on public land: one in El Dorado County and one in Placer County. More than 1,600 marijuana plants were found at each grow. When arrested, several of Ramirez’s co-defendants, including Villa-Contreras, were in the process of transporting a 25-pound sample of marijuana from Bakersfield to undercover law enforcement in Stockton. In addition to seizing a number of firearms and over 3,300 marijuana plants, investigators also seized several pounds of high-grade methamphetamine in Denair and Elk Grove.

This case is the product of an investigation by the California Department of Justice Attorney General’s Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement and the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office. Assistant United States Attorney Michael M. Beckwith prosecuted the case.

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