CHRISTIANSTED — A Venezuelan defendant who claimed that armed pirates forced him and 10 others to smuggle 121 pounds into St. Croix got nearly four years in prison today.
Daniel Jesus Salazar-Gonzalez, 43, of Caracas, was sentenced to 46 months imprisonment followed by two years of supervised release by U.S. District Court Judge Wilma Lewis, U.S. Attorney Delia L. Smith said.
Salazar-Gonzalez had wanted his attorney to argue that he was one of 11 fishermen “under duress” because pirates held the crew at gunpoint and threatened to kill their families if they didn’t take the drugs to St. Croix.
Salazar-Gonzale was one of eleven Venezuelan nationals apprehended at sea off the coast of St. Croix who were charged conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine while on board a vessel subject to the jurisdiction of the United States.
According to court documents, on September 25, 2019, the United States Coast
Guard Cutter Donald Horsley intercepted the “La Gran Tormenta”, a suspicious 55-
foot vessel displaying Venezuelan nationality, approximately 38 nautical miles south
of St. Croix.
The occupants of the vessel failed to respond to the Coast Guard’s efforts
to engage in questioning, and thereafter changed course and began jettisoning
packages. Coast Guard crew members later detained 11 individuals onboard the vessel
and retrieved two bales from the ocean which contained packages of brick-shaped
objects that tested positive for cocaine hydrochloride and weighed about 49
kilograms (108 pounds).
The case was investigated by the United States Coast Guard, U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration and U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Melissa P. Ortiz.
This prosecution is 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, multi-agency approach that leverages the strengths of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies against criminal networks.
