Kingstree, South Carolina — In a shocking announcement this week, federal authorities linked a Santa Rosa man to a plot to traffic marijuana across the country that allegedly ended with the premeditated killing of a popular postal worker, allegedly by two South Carolina residents.

Ricky Jesus Barajas, 28, of Santa Rosa, was arrested near his home last week and is being extradited to South Carolina to face federal marijuana distribution charges, according to court records. The U.S. Department of Justice announced Wednesday that Barajas was one of three suspects indicted on charges related to the killing of Irene Pressley, 64, a postal worker in Andrews, South Carolina.

Trevor Raekwon Seward, 22, and Jerome Terrell Davis, 28, both of Andrews, face charges of shooting Pressley to steal a package of marijuana from her delivery truck. They were already facing state charges related to the crime at the time of the federal indictment, authorities said.

Barajas not face charges related to Pressley’s killing, but he is charged with conspiring to distribute marijuana with the two men who authorities have linked to the homicide. The indcitment also alleges that Barajas “used a telephone to facilitate” marijuana trafficking with Seward and Davis, on the day Pressley was killed.

Pressley was fatally shot Sept. 23, 2019, as she went along her regular 70-mile route, according to news reports in South Carolina.

Barajas faces a maximum possible penalty of five years in federal prison. Seward and Davis face a possible federal death sentence, though federal prosecutors have not yet made a formal decision about what sentence to pursue.