November 29, 2022 4:20 p.m.
A Douglas County couple known for distributing drugs was sentenced to federal prison Tuesday after they were linked to the overdose death of a man to whom they had sold drugs for more than a year.
A release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office – District of Oregon said 49-year old Brian Joseph Ramos and 41-year old Christine Marie Ramos, residents of Yoncalla, were sentenced to 70 and 50 months, respectively. They must also serve five-year terms of supervised release following the completion of their prison sentences.
According to court documents, in May 2018, detectives from the Douglas Interagency Narcotics Team learned that an adult male stopped by the couple’s home after his release from a residential drug treatment program. Later that day, the man tragically died of fentanyl poisoning. The next day, investigators interviewed the Ramoses’ who confirmed that the man had been at their residence the day prior, but denied giving him drugs. Christine Ramos, who was at work when the man stopped by their residence, admitted to selling him the pills for up to two years prior to his overdose. The documents said that at one point after learning the man was injecting the pills that she sold him, Christine Ramos stopped selling him drugs, but resumed thereafter.
The release said detectives searched the Ramoses residence and found several dozen grams of methamphetamine, 260 pills, drug paraphernalia and digital scales. Several pills that later tested positive for fentanyl were found in Ramoses’ vehicles. Evidence recovered from Brian Ramos’s phone revealed that he had in fact sold a pill to the man who succumbed from the fatal overdose.
On August 30, 2018, the Ramoses were charged by criminal complaint with conspiring with one another to possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine, oxycodone and hydromorphone. On March 11th, 2021 both waived indictment and pleaded guilty.
The case was investigated by DINT and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. It was prosecuted by Jeffrey S. Sweet, Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Oregon.
The Douglas Interagency Narcotics Team was formed in October 1989 as a special investigative unit to combat illegal narcotics in Douglas County. DINT member agencies include the Douglas County Sheriff and District Attorney’s Offices, the Oregon National Guard, Oregon State Police, and the Roseburg Police Department.