Contact Person: Nick Bianchi (843) 727-4381

Columbia, South Carolina ---- United States Attorney Bill Nettles stated today that Saul Ramirez-Castillo, age 57, was sentenced on February 21, 2013, in federal court in Charleston, South Carolina, for possessing weapons inside a federal prison. Senior United States District Judge Sol Blatt, Jr., of Charleston sentenced Ramirez-Castillo to thirty-three months imprisonment, to be served consecutively to his current sentence. Ramirez-Castillo is currently serving a sixty-six month sentence for illegally reentering the United States, which is set to end in 2016. Ramirez-Castillo was also previously convicted of murder in Arizona in 1983.

Evidence presented at the trial established that on the afternoon of November 2, 2011, officers at the Federal Correctional Institution at Estill, South Carolina, conducted a search of Ramirez-Castillo. Located in Ramirez-Castillo’s pocket was a homemade weapon, approximately 5 ½ inches long. A subsequent search of Ramirez-Castillo’s cell locker led to the discover of a second homemade weapon, approximately 9 inches long.

The case was investigated by the Federal Correctional Institution at Estill and agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigations. Assistant United States Attorney Nick Bianchi of the Charleston office handled the case.

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