Thread: Two convicted in failed drug-smuggling venture at Georgia po

Two convicted in failed drug-smuggling venture at Georgia port

Stowaways failed in planned distribution at GPA container berth

Posted: November 4, 2010 - 12:19am | Updated: November 4, 2010 - 3:18am

By Jan Skutch

Two stowaways in the country illegally were convicted Wednesday in federal court for their failed attempt to smuggle cocaine and heroin valued at a half-million dollars into the Georgia Ports Authority.

A jury in U.S. District Court deliberated about two hours before convicting Angel Gomez, 45, and Jose Orlando Garcia-Duran, 33, on charges of possession with intent to distribute controlled substances, importation of controlled substances and smuggling goods into the country.

Jurors also convicted the pair on charges of illegal entry after removal from the United States and stowing away on a vessel.

Senior U.S. District Judge B. Avant Edenfield will impose sentence in several months after completion of a pre-sentencing report by probation officials.

The defendants, both Dominican Republic natives, will remain in federal custody.

A third man, Rodrigo Temple Wood, has pleaded guilty and been sentenced under a plea agreement in return for his testimony against the co-defendants.

Jurors rejected arguments that Wood threatened both men at gunpoint to force them to smuggle the drugs aboard the container vessel Cosco Boston from Panama before arriving March 27 at GPA Container Berth 7 in Garden City after a four-day voyage.

The contraband was hidden in work belts provided as part of disguises worn by all three.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Cameron Heaps Ippolito told jurors Wednesday the defendants were "doing the same crime that each of them has been convicted of before."

Evidence showed both men had been convicted in federal courts in New York on drug schemes.

As a result, both had been deported for life from the country, bans each had violated.

The March 27 incident "shows you very clearly that is what they do ... and how they do it," Ippolito said.

The prosecutor said the defendants presented "an unbelievable story" they worked up while in custody awaiting trial.

A federal agent placed the wholesale value of the drugs at "at least half a million dollars."

But Edenfield rejected the duress defense offered in the case based on evidence before him.

All three were arrested in a wooded area at GPA shortly after they departed the vessel.

Gomez testified through an interpreter he met with Wood in Panama in an attempt to reach the United States and get to Canada.

He paid Wood $6,000 for the trip, Gomez said.

When he and Duran balked, Wood pulled a gun and threatened them, Gomez said.

"We were forced to take the drugs out" in Savannah, Gomez said.

"We didn't want to bring the drugs because I knew what consequences there would be for me," Gomez said. Wood "was threatening us the whole time."

Wood told jurors Gomez was to be paid $15,000 for delivering the drugs in Savannah.

Duran, in an almost identical tale, told jurors Wednesday he was trying to get back into the United States and went to Wood.

"I paid him like I regularly did," Duran said.

When he and Gomez refused to handle the drugs, Wood pulled a gun and insisted they comply "because you have no other choice," Duran said.

"I was really, really scared," he said. "I thought I was going to die."

http://savannahnow.com

Savannah stowaway sentenced to almost 24 years in federal prison

By Jan Skutch

Created 2011-05-11 23:05



A stowaway repeatedly in the country illegally was sentenced to almost 22 years in federal prison Wednesday for his November conviction of attempting to smuggle cocaine and heroin into the Georgia Ports Authority.

Senior U.S. District Judge B. Avant Edenfield also ordered the sentence for Jose Orlando Garcia-Duran, 34, be served consecutively to a 24-month term the judge imposed earlier Wednesday. That term was for Garcia-Duran violating his 2008 probation from New Jersey federal court for illegal re-entry after being deported.

Once he completes his prison term, the main condition of the sentence requires that Garcia-Duran be deported from the United States, Edenfield ruled.

Garcia-Duran is a Dominican Republic native with family living in New York.

Edenfield brushed aside as a “specious allegationâ€