Pierce County man took bribes, smuggled drugs into King County Jail. He’s been sentenced

A former King County jail guard was sentenced Friday in U.S. District Court in Seattle to 102 months in prison for accepting a bribe to smuggle methamphetamine and fentanyl pills into the facility .

Mosses Ramos, 40 of Milton, pleaded guilty in May to bribery and conspiracy to distribute controlled substances.

Inmates Michael Anthony Barquet, 37, and Francisco Montero, 25, paid Ramos $5,000 in exchange for about a pound of meth and 100 fentanyl pills between March and May last year, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Washington in a news release.

The men remain incarcerated. Barquet is facing trial in King County for a double homicide, according to the release, and Montero has a trial for drug and bribery charges scheduled to begin in April 2025.

Ramos was a guard for 18 years before he was fired last year, the release said.

“You betrayed your fellow corrections officer. ... You jeopardized the safety of other officers as well as the safety of inmates. ... You were smuggling deadly poison into the jail,” U.S. District Judge Ricardo S. Martinez told Ramos during sentencing, according to the news release.

Ramos’ crimes were part of a web of bribes and drug trafficking that extended outside of the jail and included three women alleged to be associates of Barquet and Montero, the release said. Neca Silvestre, 38, of Kent; Katrina Cazares, 38, of Burien; and Kayara Zepeda Montero, 27, of Seattle pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing.

Ramos was given a beverage tumbler through a chain of hand-offs as a way to bring the drugs into the jail, The News Tribune previously reported.

Cazares gave the tumbler filled with the drugs to Kyara Montero on March 24, 2023, along with $5,000 in cash intended as a bribe payment. The same day, Montero gave Ramos the narcotics. Records state Silvestre also made a $220 bribe payment to Ramos that day in the form of a Cash App transfer, the story said.

Ramos brought the drugs into the jail the next day, according to court records. Investigators later seized about 59 grams of meth from Barquet and the jail cell he shared with Montero, the story said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Cindy Change wrote to the court that Ramos has a history of abusing his authority as a corrections officer.

“For years, he introduced drugs and other contraband into the facility. He disclosed confidential information to inmates. He allowed inmates to assault one another and even expressed a desire for an inmate to be assaulted when he believed the inmate ‘snitched’ on him. Ramos’ unwavering abuse of power before, during, and after the charged offenses is an aggravating factor for his sentence,” she said in the release.