CHARLOTTE AMALIE — A man who smuggled 17 pounds of marijuana into the St. Thomas airport last year has been given less than a year in prison as punishment, authorities said.
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 said.
According to public documents filed in the case, Vera was stopped on October 13, 2020 at the Cyril E. King airport after arriving on St. Thomas from Miami, Florida.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers then searched his luggage and found 18 separate baggies containing in total over eight kilograms (17.67 pounds) 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 U.S. Department of Homeland Security-Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and CBP.
It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Nathan Brooks.