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A woman charged with receiving packages in the mail containing methamphetamine concealed in teddy bears pleaded guilty Monday in Freeborn County District Court to one count of second-degree controlled substance crime.

Marivel Ramos, 46, initially was charged with first-degree methamphetamine possession, but the charge was amended as part of a plea agreement.

The agreement calls for up to 25 years of probation and a stayed jail sentence.

Ramos was charged in February as part of an investigation by the United States Postal Service Investigation Unit, the South Central Drug Investigation Unit and local authorities. As part of a narcotics investigation, agents of the South Central Drug Investigation Unit confirmed with Postal Service investigators that suspicious packages were mailed from California to Ramos’s address on Water Street in Albert Lea. She reportedly had packages delivered every 10 to 20 days for several months.

Court documents state three packages that were set to be delivered Sept. 18, 2020, were intercepted with a federal search warrant on Sept. 17, and each was found to contain a teddy bear with what tested positive as meth. They weighed a combined 10.5 pounds.

Authorities set up a controlled delivery, replacing the meth with rock salt mixed with about 60 to 65 grams of meth added in each before putting them back in the mail, and then on Sept. 18, a Postal Service investigator delivered the packages containing the teddy bears with the rock salt and meth mixture to Ramos’s address, after which she reportedly picked them up and placed them in her SUV.

When asked questions about her actions during the court proceedings Monday, Ramos said she knew what was in the packages and distributed it to people, noting that she did it for the extra money.

She is slated to be sentenced Jan. 10.