HSTF Investigation Leads to 16-Year Sentence for Iowa Woman Who Distributed Methamphetamine

An Iowa woman who distributed methamphetamine was sentenced to more than 16 years in federal prison as a result of an HSTF investigation.

A Cedar Rapids woman who distributed methamphetamine was sentenced to more than 16 years in federal prison.

Larissa Marie Ruffin, age 48, received the prison term after a March 12, 2026, guilty plea to one count of distribution of a controlled substance.

Information from the sentencing hearing showed that Ruffin distributed methamphetamine to an individual working with law enforcement officers or an undercover officer on multiple occasions between April and July 2023.  On September 30, 2023, officers stopped a car that Ruffin had been driving.  Officers located a little less than 20 pounds of methamphetamine, approximately half a pound of cocaine and more than a pound of marijuana in the car.  

Ruffin was sentenced to 200 months’ imprisonment by United States District Court Chief Judge C.J. Williams in Cedar Rapids.  Ruffin must also serve a five-year term of supervised release after the prison term.  There is no parole in the federal system.

Ruffin is being held in the United States Marshal’s custody until she can be transported to a federal prison.

This prosecution is part of the Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF) initiative established by Executive Order 14159, Protecting the American People Against Invasion.  The HSTF is a whole-of-government partnership dedicated to eliminating criminal cartels, foreign gangs, transnational criminal organizations, and human smuggling and trafficking rings operating in the United States and abroad.  Through historic interagency collaboration, the HSTF directs the full might of United States law enforcement towards identifying, investigating, and prosecuting the full spectrum of crimes committed by these organizations, which have long fueled violence and instability within our borders.  In performing this work, the HSTF places special emphasis on investigating and prosecuting those engaged in child trafficking or other crimes involving children.  The HSTF further utilizes all available tools to prosecute and remove the most violent criminal aliens from the United States.

HSTF Kansas City is headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri, covering Missouri, Kansas, Iowa and Nebraska.  HSTF Kansas City is composed of agents and officers from the Department of Homeland Security Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Homeland Security Investigations, the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Drug Enforcement Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Internal Revenue Service, the United States Marshals Service, the United States Postal Inspection Service, the State Investigative Agencies for Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, and Nebraska, and the Kansas City Missouri Police Department.