Torres sentenced to additional jail time

An interstate drug trafficker who escaped Warren County Jail five years ago, leaving behind his girlfriend to do her time, has been given an additional 10 years in prison for running a cocaine distribution ring.

The defendant, Filiaberto Torres, 32, was sentenced to 10 years in prison and fined $4,000 plus court costs for possession with intent to distribute cocaine. His 10-year term will be served consecutively, or in addition to, the two-year sentence he is presently serving for felony escape for his bolt from Warren County Jail more than five years ago.

Authorities admit they were surprised he was ever captured again following his escape given his connections in California and Mexico, from where they believe he was importing cocaine to traffic in Warren County prior to the raid on his Bethany Road home in late 1999. It was during the raid lawmen arrested him and his girlfriend, Herlinda Ramirez, after finding 96 grams of cocaine and drug money.

The cocaine was found hidden in a freezer and also inside a stuffed animal, prompting lawmen to suspect the cocaine was being smuggled in by hiding it inside items being shipped here from Mexico and the west coast.

Ramirez, who was not part of Torres? escape plan, served a year in jail for the crime and remains on probation. Torres escaped while both he and his girlfriend were being held waiting for trial.

His escape from custody came while he was being led back from the exercise yard with several other inmates in the old Warren County Jail. An investigation revealed Torres slipped into an unlocked room and waited for the guard to go inside. He then scaled the wall and jumped down and ran to freedom before jailers realized he was gone.

Torres was snagged last year in California, more than four years following his escape. A nationwide alert for his arrest was discovered by authorities who had picked him up there on unrelated charges.

Torres was one of the last inmates to successfully escape the old local jail.