A 28-year-old Melrose man is facing a first-degree felony drug charge after investigators say they watched him hand off methamphetamine to another person before pulling him over in Richmond, Minnesota, and finding more than three pounds of the drug in his vehicle. Rodolfo Ramirez Jr. drove away from that meeting only to be stopped a short time later by investigators who believed he was still holding a large quantity of meth.
According to KNSI, members of the Central Minnesota Violent Offender Task Force had been investigating methamphetamine sales in the region when they observed Ramirez meet with several people at a Stearns County location. Investigators say Ramirez handed off 452.96 grams of methamphetamine during that encounter, per the criminal complaint, before driving away. A search warrant executed on his vehicle after the stop turned up another 1,060.76 grams inside, bringing the total seizure to 1,513.72 grams — roughly 3.3 pounds.
A Familiar Pattern in Stearns County
This is not the first time Ramirez has been caught with a large quantity of methamphetamine in Stearns County. Back in 2020, a traffic stop near Sauk Centre turned up nearly 4.5 pounds of methamphetamine, a handgun, and cash after he allegedly pointed a gun at a woman, KNSI reported at the time. That case resulted in a December 2022 sentence from Stearns County District Court Judge Heidi Schultz, who ordered Ramirez to serve 138 months — about 11.5 years — for first-degree controlled substance possession, plus 60 months for being a felon in possession of a firearm, as part of a plea deal that dismissed more than a dozen other counts.
How Ramirez came to be free and allegedly dealing meth again in 2026 traces back to how Minnesota structures prison time. Under Minnesota Statute § 244.101, executed felony sentences are split into two parts — a minimum term of imprisonment equal to two-thirds of the total sentence, and a supervised release term covering the remaining third, according to the Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. That structure allows eligible prisoners who follow disciplinary rules to serve the final portion of their sentence outside prison walls.
Prior Record Triggers Mandatory Minimum
Ramirez has a prior first-degree controlled substance possession conviction and has been convicted of drug crimes six times since 2016, in addition to convictions for burglary and being a felon in possession of a firearm. Because of that record, the new charge carries a mandatory minimum prison sentence of just over five years, and Minnesota law sets a four-year statutory floor for first-degree controlled substance offenders with a prior felony drug conviction, according to the Balmer Law Office. The charge itself carries a maximum sentence of 40 years and a fine of up to $1,000,000.
The scale of the seizure places Ramirez's case well beyond Minnesota's threshold for its most serious drug felony tier. Under Minnesota Statute § 152.021, possessing just 50 grams of methamphetamine is enough to trigger a first-degree charge, according to FindLaw — meaning the 1,513.72 grams found in Ramirez's vehicle amounts to more than 30 times that amount. First-degree possession carries up to 30 years for first-time offenders and up to 40 years for repeat offenders under that statute.
Task Force Points to Mail as Supply Route
Investigators believe Ramirez's source of supply was sending multiple pounds of methamphetamine into the region through the mail, per KNSI's report. That allegation lines up with a U.S. Department of Justice drug threat assessment, which identified mail parcels and parcel delivery services as among the primary methods drug trafficking organizations use to move methamphetamine into Minnesota, allowing out-of-state suppliers to reach regional distributors without direct contact.
The Central Minnesota Violent Offender Task Force, which made the stop, draws investigators from the St. Cloud and Sartell police departments along with sheriff's deputies from Stearns, Benton, Sherburne, Todd, and Morrison counties, according to Lakeland PBS. Methamphetamine consistently accounts for the highest number of controlled substance arrests the task force makes across its five-county territory, the Benton County Sheriff's Office has said in a public safety report, with meth arrests rising significantly over the past decade.
The task force's recent case load reflects that trend. Hoodline previously reported that the same unit arrested nine in a St. Cloud sweep tied to a cocaine trafficking network with Puerto Rico connections, seizing over 2.5 pounds of cocaine and $10,000 in cash. Just months earlier, in June, the task force seized more than 18 pounds of methamphetamine and three handguns while dismantling a St. Cloud-area distribution ring, leading to charges against five people across central Minnesota.
