SECURITY OFFICE NEAL CHESTERFIELD: Sentenced to 5.83 years in prison today.
CHARLOTTE AMALIE – A former “dignity officer” assigned to Gov. Kenneth Mapp was given nearly six years in prison today for admitting to a cocaine-smuggling operation that spanned five years.
Neal Chesterfield, 41, of St. Thomas was sentenced to 70 months incarceration for his conviction of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine, U.S. Attorney Gretchen C.F. Shappert said today.
U.S. District Court Judge Curtis Gomez also sentenced Chesterfield to five years of supervised release and $100 special assessment, Shappert said.
According to the plea agreement filed with the court on December 1, 2016, Chesterfield was a member of a large-scale drug trafficking organization from 2011 through 2016.
In 2011, Chesterfield, a security officer at the Office of the Governor, was recruited by a co-conspirator who convinced him to use his law enforcement credentials to bypass security screening at Cyril E. King International Airport to smuggling large kilogram quantities of cocaine from St. Thomas to Miami and Fort Lauderdale.
Once in Florida, Chesterfield delivered the cocaine to a co-conspirator for distribution in the continental United States at $33,000 per kilogram. During the course of the conspiracy, Chesterfield used his security clearance to smuggle over 200 kilograms of cocaine for the drug trafficking organization.
The smuggling operation was dismantled on September 3, 2016, after co-conspirator DPNR Officer Gerald Mercer contacted a CBP agent and reported that Chesterfield was traveling on that day with cocaine and had to be stopped. Within one hour of receiving the tip, CBP agents seized 22 kilograms of cocaine from Chesterfield’s carry-on suitcase.
Chesterfield was paid officially as a security officer to Juel Rhymer Molloy in Government House. Molloy is Mapp’s policy advisor.
The case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
It was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Delia Smith.
To read more: