CHRISTIANSTED — Damian Lang, a convicted felon and Virgin Islands Department of Agriculture employee, was arrested on federal drug charges Tuesday.
Lang, 41, of St. Croix, is charged with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine, U.S. Attorney Gretchen C.F. Shappert said today.
According to court documents, Lang, who is a quality control officer at the Agriculture’s non-operational abattoir on St. Croix, was arrested and charged with conspiracy to possess cocaine with intent to distribute after attempting to mail parcels containing 156.3 ounces of cocaine to Spartanburg, South Carolina on December 7, 2019.
The parcels were intercepted and contained approximately 462 grams of a white powdery substance which field-tested positive for cocaine, court documents indicate.
Lang was arraigned in federal court on St. Croix on Tuesday and detention, preliminary and removal hearings were scheduled for this morning.
According to court documents, Lang is currently on release pending trial in an unrelated federal case, No. 2015-13, for the charge of felon in possession of ammunition.
The South Carolina case is investigated by Homeland Security Investigations, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, United States Postal Inspection Service, and the Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office.
Lang had a 2016 bank robbery conviction overturned by a federal judge in 2019.
It is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Melissa P. Ortiz and Alphonso Andrews in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
United States Attorney Shappert said that a criminal complaint is merely a formal charging document and is not in and of itself evidence of guilt.
“Every defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty,” she said.