U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Roniel Tolentino, right, and Avelino Ramirez, center, St. Quentin state prison K-9 officer and evaluator, prepare Richard Godinez, Valley State Prison K-9 officer, to start an evaluation during a joint training exercise Apri …
SAN QUENTIN, Calif. - A former San Quentin prison guard has been indicted for "finding" drugs, cell phones, tobacco and weapons that he had allegedly planted and then "pretended" to find himself in order to boost his pay and seem more successful than he was, according to a federal indictment.
Avelino Ramirez, an investigative services unit K-9 officer with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, was charged on Oct. 31 in U.S. District Court in Northern California with wire fraud and forfeiture allegations spanning over three years.
Ramirez did not have an attorney listed on record and efforts to locate him were not immediately successful on Tuesday. He is not in custody.
A spokesperson for CDCR said that Ramirez is currently employed by the prison system but has been on paid administrative time off since Feb. 27, 2024.
He began his career as a correctional officer on Dec. 18, 2006, where he was assigned to San Quentin State Prison. He was promoted to sergeant and assigned to California Health Care Facility on Sept. 23, 2022, and transferred to California Medical Facility in Vacaville as a sergeant a few days later.
The case is being prosecuted by Asst. U.S. Attorney Benjamin Kurtis Kleinman.
The grand jury indictment alleges that Ramirez smuggled in, and then planted contraband, at San Quentin and the California Medical Facility and then "pretended" to find it "in order to hold himself out as a successful K-9 officer with the hope that it would help him obtain a promotion."
"Finding" this contraband meant that Ramirez appeared to "vastly outperform" his colleagues, according to the indictment.
Being promoted to K-9 sergeant also enabled him to boost his salary through overtime report writing, the indictment alleges, based on these "false discoveries."
The total of that overtime from 2021 to February of this year was roughly $8,000, according to the indictment.
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Ramirez's contraband finds far outweighed his colleagues, which eventually made his superiors suspicious.
For example, in 2021, Ramirez recovered 13 or the 23 contraband packages found at San Quentin, the indictment reads. The next highest number of contraband packages recovered by a single officer was two. And eight other correctional officers at San Quentin only recovered one contraband package each that year, according to the indictment.
In 2022, Ramirez discovered 20 contraband packages at San Quentin out of a total of 28. Again, the next highest number found by a single officer was two, the indictment states.
Supervisors began noticing the "irregular contraband discoveries" and temporarily suspended searches of certain areas.
After Ramirez was removed from his position in Vacaville in February 2023, there was a "dramatic reduction" in drug contraband discoveries, the indictment alleges.
The most typical items that Ramirez allegedly planted and then "dishonestly discovered" were methamphetamine, cocaine, marijuana, tobacco, electronic devices and weapons, the grand jury found.
According to the indictment, Ramirez often put the contraband in Ziploc sandwich bags with a green seal, latex gloves, black electrical tape, tin foil or clear plastic, which he kept hidden in his home basement.
He also allegedly used his prison knowledge of the prison system and smuggled in the drugs in such a way that they would pass field tests.
Ramirez was also savvy enough to direct other officers to search other areas in an "effort to conceal his involvement in the scheme," the indictment alleges.
At least one of his K-9s was named "Teddy," according to a CDCR news release in 2019.
As of Tuesday, there was no future court date scheduled.