SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A federal grand jury returned a five-count indictment today against Esteban Gerardo Ramirez, 31, of San Jose, and Marsha Garma Phillips, 45, of Fairfield, charging them with conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and related methamphetamine trafficking charges, U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert announced.
According to court documents, between Sept. 13, 2021, and March 8, 2022, Phillips sold over 5 pounds of methamphetamine to an FBI confidential source. Surveillance and further investigation revealed Phillips was supplied by Ramirez, whom she would meet in a parking lot in Fremont to pick up methamphetamine, before returning to Fairfield to sell it.
This case is the product of an investigation by the FBI’s Solano County Violent Crimes Task Force and the Fairfield Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Adrian T. Kinsella is prosecuting the case.
If convicted, each defendant faces a maximum statutory penalty of life in prison and a $10 million fine. Any sentence, however, would be determined at the discretion of the court after consideration of any applicable statutory factors and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which take into account a number of variables. The charges are only allegations; the defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
This case is being prosecuted as part of the joint federal, state, and local Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) Program, the centerpiece of the Department of Justice’s violent crime reduction efforts. PSN is an evidence-based program proven to be effective at reducing violent crime. Through PSN, a broad spectrum of stakeholders work together to identify the most pressing violent crime problems in the community and develop comprehensive solutions to address them. As part of this strategy, PSN focuses enforcement efforts on the most violent offenders and partners with locally based prevention and reentry programs for lasting reductions in crime.