Dominican trucker faces second deportation for New Stanton fentanyl sale

Westmoreland County prosecutors said a Dominican Republic national faces deportation for the second time after he serves an eight-year prison sentence for selling fentanyl to an undercover state trooper two years ago in New Stanton.

Leonardo Antonio Ramirez was convicted in May by a Westmoreland County jury of three drug-related counts related to the transaction police said involved about $50,000 of drugs that were transported by truck across the state.

Police said Ramirez, 47, whose listed address was in New Jersey, attempted to sell the drugs to an undercover state trooper in the parking lot of a local hotel Aug. 18, 2022.

Ramirez has been in jail since his arrest and was sentenced Tuesday to serve four to eight years in prison.

“A mitigated sentence is not appropriate because of the scourge of drugs that has affected the country,” said Westmoreland County Common Pleas Judge Scott Mears.

Assistant District Attorney Jackie Knupp said the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency placed a detainer on Ramirez and will seek to deport him after he is released from prison. Federal authorities indicated they might seek to charge Ramirez with unlawful entry into the United States, Knupp said.

Prosecutors said Ramirez previously was deported in 2004 and subsequently illegally reentered the country sometime over the past two decades. Knupp said Ramirez committed no other crimes during that time.

While conducting a presentence investigation of Ramirez following his conviction, Westmoreland County probation officers discovered he did not hold legal status to be in the United States, Knupp said.

Defense attorney Duke George argued for leniency in light of his client’s expected deportation and pushed unsuccessfully for imposition of a sentence that mirrored a 2½- to 5-year sentence rejected before last spring’s trial.

Ramirez contended at trial he was set up by a companion who accompanied him on the cross-state drive to sell the drugs but who was not charged in connection with the drug sale.