Press Release
Brothers sentenced to 10 months in prison for flying unregistered plane, transporting marijuana for sale
For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Western District of Louisiana
ALEXANDRIA, La. – United States Attorney Stephanie A. Finley announced that two brothers from Alabama were sentenced last week to 10 months in prison for flying an unregistered plane loaded with marijuana.
George Bancroft Marshall, 39, and John Samuel Marshall IV, 42, both of Gulf Shores, Ala., were sentenced Wednesday, January 18, 2017 by U.S. District Judge Dee D. Drell. George Marshall was sentenced to 10 months in prison on one count of operation of an unregistered aircraft, and John Marshall was sentenced to 10 months in prison on one count of possession with intent to distribute marijuana. They must also forfeit the plane seized during the investigation and serve more than two years of supervised release. According to the guilty pleas, law enforcement agents searched a 1966 Mooney M20E aircraft on February 11, 2015 at the Alexandria Airport. George Marshall had been piloting the plane and was transporting his brother John Marshall from California to Alabama. They had stopped in Alexandria overnight to fuel. Law enforcement found 19 vacuum sealed packages of marijuana weighing approximately 34.9 pounds. They also located 10 vacuum sealed packages of hash oil weighing approximately 20.9 ounces. George Marshall later admitted that he worked as a commercial pilot, had purchased the airplane in January of 2015 in Arkansas for $30,000 and did not complete the registration for the plane.
Homeland Security Investigations, U.S. Customs and Border Protection-New Orleans Air and Marine Branch, and Louisiana State Police conducted the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert F. Moore prosecuted the case.
Updated January 24, 2017
Topic
Drug Trafficking
Component