Different cases, same sentences for I-70 drug smugglers in Eagle County
Miguel Del Rio-Gomez and David Ramos-Palma had similar circumstances surrounding their drug smuggling arrests in Eagle County, and on Wednesday, March 12, the men received identical sentences in their cases.
Ramos-Palma was the driver of a vehicle stopped by authorities on Interstate 70 while traveling through Eagle County on July 26. Del Rio-Gomez was the driver of a vehicle traveling eastbound on I-70 on Oct. 16 when he was stopped.
Ramos-Palma, 28, was caught smuggling more than 10,000 fentanyl pills, along with a small caliber pistol.
Del Rio-Gomez, 33, was caught with three packages of cocaine weighing just over 7 pounds, one package of suspected M30 fentanyl pills weighing just over 2.5 pounds, and one pressed brick of suspected purple fentanyl weighing almost 3 pounds.
In both cases, Assistant District Attorney Joe Kirwan said a sentence of seven years is appropriate for the defendants, who both pled guilty to charges of intent to deliver controlled substances.
Support Local Journalism
In both cases, Judge Rachel J. Olguin-Fresquez agreed, sentencing the men to seven years in the Colorado Department of Corrections.
Other recent cases
In another recent case involving an I-70 drug smuggler in Eagle County, which came before Olguin-Fresquez in February, prosecutors also pushed for seven years.
But in that case, involving 21-year-old Jorge Cantua-Herrera, who was the passenger in a vehicle carrying 2.7 pounds of fentanyl pills, Olguin-Fresquez didn’t agree.
The judge instead gave Cantua-Herrera the minimum five-year sentence, pointing out that the driver of the vehicle received an offer to plead guilty to a lesser crime and only received five years of probation.
As Cantua-Herrera was being stopped in January 2024, 24-year-old Estevan Osuna’s case was just wrapping up. Osuna was stopped under similar circumstances and was caught driving through Eagle County with 12.5 pounds of fentanyl. He received eight years in the Colorado Department of Corrections.
Feds taking fewer
Osuna, Cantua-Herrera, Del Rio-Gomez and Ramos-Palma were all arrested by members of the Gore Range Narcotic Interdiction Team, a multi-jurisdictional drug task force known as GRANITE that is composed of local law enforcement partners and detectives from the Eagle County Sheriff’s Office and the Vail Police Department.
GRANITE made 11 major busts in 2024, removing 24.5 pounds of suspected fentanyl, 73 pounds of suspected cocaine, 30 pounds of suspected mixed fentanyl and cocaine, and 132.78 pounds of suspected methamphetamine off the streets. A pair of big busts have occurred already in 2025, as well, with the latest coming on March 7, in which GRANITE officers seized 40 pounds of PCP.
Most GRANITE cases end up being heard in the local court system, where suspects will appear before district court judges like Olguin-Fresquez, but some will become federal cases.
In July, a GRANITE officer arrested 24-year-old Angel Gabriel Valadez, of Chicago, after stopping him on I-70 and finding 23 pounds of cocaine in the vehicle. Valadez’s case was sent to federal court in October.
Ramos-Palma’s attorney, on Wednesday, told Olguin-Fresquez that his client had been considered as a possible transfer to federal court, as well.
“It was reported to us that it was going to be picked up by the federal government,” Ramos-Palma’s attorney told Olguin-Fresquez on Wednesday. “But … the federal government has greatly reduced the cases, at least from Colorado, that they are taking.”
