(This story replaces 2 separate stories containing the same info.)

Two men were sentenced on drug charges in U-S District Court Tuesday, in Council Bluffs. The U-S Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa reports 47-year old Manuel Montejano Pinon, of Des Moines, and 32-year old Michael Arnold Ramirez, of Los Angeles, California, were sentenced by Senior United States District Court Judge James E. Gritzner. Pinon will serve a little more than 13 ½ years in prison for conspiring to distribute methamphetamine and 5-years in prison for possessing a firearm in furtherance of drug trafficking. The two prison terms were ordered to be served consecutively. Ramirez received a sentence of slightly more than 12-years in prison for conspiring to distribute methamphetamine and money laundering to conceal drug proceeds.

Acting United States Attorney Kevin E. VanderSchel says Pinon pled guilty to the charges on September 23rd (2015). According to the plea agreement, Pinon was involved in a conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine in the Southern District of Iowa. As part of the conspiracy, Pinon delivered money from the sale of methamphetamine to the methamphetamine suppliers. Pinon also possessed a firearm to further his involvement in drug trafficking.

In Ramirez’s plea agreement, he acknowledged he was involved in a conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine in the Southern District of Iowa. As part of the conspiracy, in April of 2015, Ramirez traveled from California to Iowa for the purpose of transporting drug proceeds back to California. Ramirez also concealed the drug proceeds in order to disguise the location and source of the proceeds of the drug conspiracy.

Both men were sentenced by Senior U-S District Court Judge James E. Gritzner. Their cases were investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Iowa Division of Narcotics Enforcement. Both cases were prosecuted by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa.

(9-a.m. News)