Three Butte County men indicted in distribution of 1,000 fentanyl pills, authorities say

A federal grand jury indicted three Butte County men on charges related to distributing fentanyl, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said Thursday in a news release.

Guillermo Jose Leon Ramirez, 41, Justin James Garcia, 44, and William Lee Vollendroff, 43, face charges of conspiracy to distribute fentanyl and two counts of distribution after allegedly selling “more than 1,000 fentanyl-laced pills that were made to look like Oxycodone pills to a confidential source,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in the release.

U.S. Attorney McGregor Scott and Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea announced the charges, which resulted from an investigation by a Butte interagency task force, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the FBI and California Highway Patrol.

Ramirez and Garcia are of Oroville. Vollendroff is a Palermo resident.

If convicted, each will face a minimum of five years in prison, a maximum of 40 years, and fines up to $5 million

A mass overdose incident earlier this month in which one man died and more than a dozen required medical attention at a Chico home was quickly linked to fentanyl. Chico police officially released the cause of the death as fentanyl this week, as reported by the Chico Enterprise-Record.

There is no indication of whether the three men charged in this week’s indictment have any connection to that incident.

This story was originally published January 31, 2019 at 2:38 PM with the headline "Three Butte County men indicted in distribution of 1,000 fentanyl pills, authorities say."