New york man sentenced to 75 months in prison for smuggling cocaine through newark airport
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
May 8, 2012 |
NEWARK, N.J. – A New York man was sentenced to 75 months in prison today for arranging to import cocaine from Panama via Newark Liberty International Airport, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.
Michael Rose, 33, of Brooklyn, previously pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Susan D. Wigenton to an Indictment charging him with conspiracy to import cocaine. Judge Wigenton imposed the sentence today in Newark court.
According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:
Rose and an accomplice agreed to import cocaine by arranging for a courier to transport the drug into the country on a commercial aircraft. The accomplice, Reginald Estrada, 35, of Brooklyn, previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to important cocaine and was sentenced in February 2012 to 93 months in prison.
As part of the conspiracy, Estrada gave the courier money for a plane ticket from Newark Liberty International Airport to Panama. On March 27, 2011, the courier returned to Newark Liberty on a commercial aircraft, transporting approximately 1.9 kilograms of cocaine. When Estrada and Rose arrived at the airport to pick up the courier, they were apprehended by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers.
In addition to the prison term, Judge Wigenton sentenced Rose to five years of supervised release.
U.S. Attorney Fishman praised special agents of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Andrew M. McLees in Newark, for the investigation leading to today’s sentence. He also thanked officers of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, under the leadership of Director of New York Field Operations Robert E. Perez, and detectives and officers of the Port Authority Police Department of New York and New Jersey, under the direction of Superintendent Michael A. Fedorko.
The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Randall Cook of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Criminal Division in Newark.
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Defense counsel: Donna Newman Esq., New York
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