District Court Judge Curtis V. Gomez on Tuesday sentenced Tomas Liriano Castillo to 121 months in prison for conspiracy to possess cocaine with the intent to distribute, U.S. Attorney Ronald W. Sharpe announced.
Gomex also ordered the 44-year-old Castillo to five years of supervised release after his prison term, plus 300 hours of community service.
According to the evidence presented at trial, on May 9 Castillo traveled by boat from Tortola to Hull Bay in St. Thomas with a backpack containing cocaine. After Castillo got off the boat he saw agents from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration approaching him and attempted to discard the backpack.
When the backpack was recovered, it was found to contain about 5.8 kilograms, or more than 12 pounds, of cocaine.
The case was investigated by the DEA and U.S. Customs and Border Protection Office of Air and Marine. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Sigrid Tejo-Sprotte and Everard Potter.
