CHARLOTTE AMALIE — A young St. Thomas man who fled the Red Hook U.S. Customs facility when he realized that his backpack with a gun in it was about to be put through an x-ray machine got 2.5 years in prison.
Javier Enrique Lima of St. Thomas was sentenced Wednesday to 30 months in prison after pleading guilty to possessing and transporting a firearm with an obliterated serial number and fleeing a designated customs facility without authorization, U.S. Attorney Gretchen C.F. Shappert said.
According to the documents filed in this case, on February 3, Lima presented himself to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in the Red Hook ferry terminal after returning from Tortola, British Virgin Islands. A CBP Officer working the x-ray machine noticed a firearm in the backpack Lima brought with him, and called for another officer.
Lima immediately fled the facility on foot, leaving his backpack. The backpack contained a firearm with an obliterated serial number in the x-ray machine.
Law enforcement agents made multiple efforts to find Lima, but were unsuccessful. He would later turn himself in to authorities and plead guilty.
U.S. District Court Judge Robert Molloy sentenced Lima to 30 months imprisonment followed by two years of supervised release on one count and 12 months imprisonment followed by one year of supervised release on one count; to be run concurrently.
The case was investigated by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.