CHARLOTTE AMALIE — A St. Thomas man who smuggled 7.7 pounds of marijuana into the territory aboard a commercial airline flight was given probation by a federal judge.
Kharim Moore of Charlotte Amalie was sentenced today to three years’ probation, fined $1,000, and ordered to complete 100 hours of community service for possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance, U.S. Attorney Gretchen C.F. Shappert said.
According to court documents, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers were conducting screenings of arriving passengers at the Cyril E. King Airport on November 4, 2020 when Moore disembarked a Delta Airlines flight from Atlanta, Georgia. He was selected for inspection and his carryon backpack was searched.
Officers discovered nine vacuum sealed packages with a green leafy substance inside that weighed approximately 3.48 kilograms. The substance tested positive for marijuana.
The Department of Homeland Security-Homeland Security Investigations and CBP investigated the case.
It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Kyle Payne.
The case was part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) investigation. OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level drug traffickers, money launderers, gangs, and transnational criminal
organizations that threaten the United States by using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multiagency approach that leverages the strengths of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies
against criminal networks.