A federal judge on Thursday sentenced two former Delta Airlines employees to five months in prison and five months home confinement following their convictions for smuggling undocumented persons into the United States aboard commercial aircraft through Cryil E. King Airport on St. Thomas.
Former Delta Airlines assistant supervisor Diana Telemaque, 33, and former Delta Airlines passenger services representative Felicia Browne, 22, were also sentenced to three years of supervised release for conspiracy to smuggle aliens through the airport, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Thursday.
Also sentenced was former Delta baggage handler Daniel Confidente, 47, who received five years probation. Each defendant was also ordered to pay $16,000 in fines.
According to the U.S. Attorney, the defendants used their positions as ticket agents and baggage handler to sell passage on a commercial aircraft to illegal aliens, and to assist them in bypassing the Customs and Immigration checkpoint and board Delta Airlines flights bound for the United States.
District Court Chief Judge Curtis Gomez handed down the sentence, saying the three were very lucky to receive such light sentences because they were convicted of very serious offenses, according to a statement from the office of U.S. Attorney for the U.S. Virgin Islands, Ronald W. Sharpe.
Gomez said he followed government’s recommendation that the Court consider the defendants’ cooperation with the government and immediate acceptance of responsibility, according to the statement.
All three defendants were arrested on September 4, 2009 and charged in a six-count indictment, which included conspiracy to smuggle illegal aliens into the United States and alien smuggling, from about May 2008 through July 2009. Each of the defendants pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to smuggle aliens into the United States.
The Department of Homeland Security, the Inspector General’s Office, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement also assisted in the case, which was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys St. Clair Theodore and Everard E. Potter.
