OAKLAND — On Jan. 13, a high school nurse saved the life of a 17-year-old girl by giving her a dose of Narcan after she was found unconscious in a school bathroom from a fentanyl overdose.
Soon, the police had the name of his alleged drug supplier: a Contra Costa resident named Javier Antonio Ramirez. But almost immediately, the investigation shifted from a potential fentanyl trafficking case to allegations of sexual abuse of a minor.
Ramirez is now in Santa Rita Jail without bail, facing charges of receiving child pornography. The charge is based on evidence from his phone that he was paying another person pre-agreed sums for access to terabytes of videos showing children between the ages of 5 and 17 being sexually abused, according to the criminal complaint.
But authorities also believe Ramirez was sexually abusing the 17-year-old girl, that he filmed and posted some of the abuse on social media sites like Instagram, and that none of it was discovered before the death. the girl.
After the overdose, unspecified witnesses gave Contra Costa Sheriff’s investigators the nickname “Lucky” as the man who gave the girl fentanyl. When police used the nickname to find Ramirez’s Instagram page, they were met with a publicly released video showing the girl engaging in a sexual act with Ramirez, according to the criminal complaint.
About two weeks later, on February 1, the girl’s mother called Ramirez, while police recorded the conversation. During the call, he allegedly “admitted that he had a sexual relationship” with the girl last December, the complaint states. In an interview with police a few days later, the girl – known in court records only as “minor victim 1” – admitted that she started buying cocaine and other drugs from Ramirez. after he sent her a direct message on Instagram last year.
“Underage victim 1 said Ramirez started ‘liking’ her so he lowered the price of her medication for her. Underage Victim 1 said she first had sex with Ramirez in November 2022,” Contra Costa District Attorney Senior Inspector Darryl Holcombe wrote in the criminal complaint. The girl said they would go to San Francisco to buy fentanyl and once Ramirez used the drug when her young child was just a few feet away.
She said the day of her overdose, she and Ramirez went to San Francisco to buy fentanyl, authorities said.
In Ramirez’s phone, police found evidence that Ramirez had tapped into one of the darkest reaches of the internet, the underground market for child sexual abuse material. He reportedly asked for child pornography awards and received screenshots asking for $80 for four terabytes of “content for teens and CP (child pornography) ages 5-17,” featuring “rape, CP, incest and much more.” Moreover”.
Videos depicting underage victim 1, as well as other videos depicting a young girl, estimated to be between 6 and 8 years old, were also found on Ramirez’s phone. Authorities believe the video of the girl was uploaded and not filmed by Ramirez.
Ramirez has already spent 2015 on Contra Costa for unlawful sex with a minor – which he did not contest in order to dismiss the more serious charges of pedophilia – and he served a multi-year prison sentence for assault with a weapon. on fire, according to court records. Some of the videos showed Ramirez with the word “Mob” tattooed on his stomach, but he is not believed to be an active gang member, according to authorities.