Christopher Vera was sentenced to 10 months in prison and three years of supervised release for attempting to smuggle marijuana into St. Thomas, U.S. Attorney Gretchen C.F. Shappert announced Thursday.
According to public documents filed in the case, Vera was stopped on Oct. 13, 2020, at the Cyril E. King airport after arriving on St. Thomas from Miami. Customs and Border Protection officers searched his luggage and found 18 separate baggies containing more than eight kilograms total of marijuana.
Vera admitted to officers that he had been offered approximately $1,500 to transport the marijuana, which he was supposed to deliver to another individual once he arrived on St. Thomas.
This case was investigated by the Department of Homeland Security-Homeland Security Investigations and CBP. It was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Nathan Brooks.