Two Air Marshalls Accused Of Drug Smuggling

The Guardian (UK) ^ | 2-13-2006

[blam]

Two Air Marshals Accused of Drug Smuggling

Monday February 13, 2006 10:16 PM

HOUSTON (AP) - Two U.S. air marshals face federal drug charges accusing them of using their positions to smuggle narcotics through airport security and onto planes for transport, federal prosecutors said.

Shawn Ray Nguyen, 38, and Burlie L. Sholar III, 32, both of Houston, were arrested Thursday after an informant delivered 33 pounds of cocaine and $15,000 in ``up front money'' to Nguyen's Houston home, authorities said.

[river rat]

Federal Civil Servants.......
Probably couldn't have passed a background check to work for Corporate America...

Semper Fi

[ozoneliar]

Bad news if the charges are true. The Air Marshals are in unique position to circumvent airport security. When people like that betray the nation's trust they must be dealt with, in my opinion, as harshly as possible.

[Rebelbase]

Prison should be an interesting experience for these two.

[steveo]

Well we thought it was a good idea at the time...

[blam]

"Bad news if the charges are true. The Air Marshals are in unique position to circumvent airport security. When people like that betray the nation's trust they must be dealt with, in my opinion, as harshly as possible."

Yup. What would they do for enough money?

[CWOJackson]

If true I hope a real example is made of them.

[FerdieMurphy]

Shawn Ray Nguyen, 38, and Burlie L. Sholar III, 32...

Wonder where they dug up these two bozos?

Nugyen? Sholar?

[freepatriot32]

Libertarian ping.To be added or removed from my ping list freepmail me or post a message here

[freepatriot32]

ping

[sockmonkey]

Federal Civil Servants....... Probably couldn't have passed a background check to work for Corporate America...

Back in the early 90's when I was in Europe, I met a person from AZ who told me he drove the US mail truck from Mexico/Nogales into the US. He told me that the cargo was more than just mail.

[Recovering Ex-hippie]

The WAR on Drugs just proves over and over what we couldn't do during Prohibition we can't do a hundred times over in this WOD.

[Will_Zurmacht]

the worst bumbling cop in my small home town is now a federal air marshall.....my confidence ebbed when I read the "great news" in the local paper.

[sgtbono2002]

I agree , Give them life. If theyre guilty.

[winston2]

If true I hope a real example is made of them.

Like Texas made an example out of the guy mentioned below?

The Victoria Advocate - DA pleads innocent to drug, firearms charges BETSY BLANEY Associated Press Wednesday, January 19th, 2005 AMARILLO - A West Texas district attorney pleaded innocent Tuesday to federal drug and firearms charges, and his attorney agreed to place him in an inpatient drug rehabilitation program indefinitely. Rick Roach, 55, was arrested Jan. 11 at the Gray County Courthouse before he was scheduled to present cases. The two-term Republican has been jailed since his arrest last week on charges of possession of methamphetamine, possession of once ounce each of methamphetamine and cocaine with intent to distribute, and unlawful possession of weapons by a drug addict. If convicted on all counts, Roach faces up to 51 years in prison and $2.5 million in fines. He declined to comment while being led from court Tuesday. "We're looking forward to trying to get this entire situation resolved as quickly as possible," Roach's attorney, Bill Kelly, said after the hearing.
TheVictoriaAdvocate.com

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Tuesday :: February 08, 2005 Texas DA to Plead Guilty to Gun Charges, Drug Charges Dropped Texas panhandle prosecutor Rick Roach was in a heap of trouble last month when he was indicted for drug and gun offenses, including possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine and cocaine. He was arrested while at the courthouse. His secretary provided a sworn affidavit saying he shot meth twice at an apartment and was about to at the office when she walked out of the room. Today, Roach pleaded guilty to being an addict in possession of a firearm in federal court in Amarillo. As part of the deal, the drug counts were dismissed. According to court documents, Roach admitted he was addicted to methamphetamine and that he started using it regularly several months before his arrest. He told a government witness that he first tried the drug after finding it in a seized vehicle, the court papers said. Roach will go to jail, but a federal prison camp is a lot nicer place than a Texas state penitentiary. And he won't have to do as much time on the gun count as he would have on the drug counts. He faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The drug charges could have brought an additional 41 years and $2.25 million in fines. No sentencing date was set. Roach is free until sentencing. Roach's attorney, Bill Kelly, said it was a good deal. "I can't say we're satisfied, but it's certainly acceptable," he said. When Roach first ran for office, he ran on a "tough on drugs" campaign. Now he's just another casualty of the drug war. What a shame. There is no pleasure to be taken from his downfall. Instead, we should learn from it. Drug addiction is an illness and should be treated as one. Posted Tuesday :: February 08, 2005| Crimes in the News talkleft.com/new_archives

[CWOJackson]

A shame he didn't get the max.

[winston2]

A shame he didn't get the max.

It's good to be the king!

Mayor of Washington D.C. arrested for cocaine use-

On January 18, 1990, Barry was arrested with a former girlfriend, Hazel "Rasheeda" Moore, in a sting operation at the Vista Hotel by the FBI and D.C. Police for crack cocaine use and possession. The incident – played over and over on television – produced what is perhaps the most memorable quote of Barry's long career: "Goddamn setup . . . I'll be goddamn . . . bitch set me up." This quote refers to corrupt police officer Paul Allen, with whom Barry had a long standing feud.

Barry was charged with three counts of felony perjury, 10 counts of misdemeanor drug possession, and one misdemeanor count of conspiracy to possess cocaine; however, he was convicted only of a single previous misdemeanor count of possessing cocaine in November 1989. He was acquitted on one possession charge and a mistrial was declared on the 12 remaining charges.

As a result of his arrest and the ensuing trial, Barry was forced to step down from his position as mayor. In the midst of his campaign for a city council seat, Barry was sentenced to a six-month federal prison term in October 1990.
wikipedia.org/wiki/Marion_Barry

[TKDietz]

They were getting paid $67,500 to transport 33 pounds of cocaine from Houston to Las Vegas? Man, that's a lot of money. As a public defender on a major highway in an area where they bust an awful lot of drug mules, I represent a lot of people caught carrying cocaine and other drugs and I've never heard of one getting paid anywhere close to that much for such a small load of coke. Not that 33 pounds is a tiny amount of cocaine or anything, but mules are caught all the time with much bigger loads. People transporting much larger loads all the way across the country are getting paid only a few thousand, nowhere close to $67.5k. Maybe these people were paying extra because they thought the air marshalls were a much safer bet than someone driving down the highway with the dope stashed in false compartments, but that's an awful big premium to pay to transport dope after already having to pay a lot to get it in the country or purchase it after it has been smuggled in. They're adding more than $2000 per pound costs in, and people with 33 pounds of dope aren't the ones selling grams and "eight balls" (3.5 grams) to drunk gamblers. They're selling pounds at a time at wholesale prices and letting people on down the line take the big risks involved with retail drug sales. They probably aren't getting much more than $10k a pound, if that, and they'd already have several thousand per pound in it by the time it got to Houston. I kind of have to wonder if these two yahoos were really in the business of transporting large amounts of drugs or if they just got suckered into doing this by the "informant" with promises of a huge payout. That's a lot of money to waive around at a someone on a crummy government salary for a few hours or maybe even just a few minutes worth of work.

If the standard pay for air marshalls doing this sort of thing for interstate transport of cocaine really is better than $2000 a pound, there will always be some willing to do it. There will always be people willing to do it at a $1000 a pound. Cocaine is a very dense powder and a few pounds only occupies a small space. It's easy to conceal, and hard to find. Transporting these small packages within the country isn't something that takes a rocket scientist to do. Most loads get to their destinations without police ever having an inkling about what is going on, and in some cases, police, border patrol officers, customs officers, and air marshalls too it appears, are actually aiding in the process for hefty fees.

The big money involved is the reason we will never arrest and incarcerate our way out of the drug problems in this country. With so much money involved there will always be enough people willing to smuggle it in, transport it from one state to another, and traffic in it at various levels of the distribution chains, to insure that the demand for these substances is always met. I'm not for legalizing cocaine or anything like that. It's good when we can shut down trafficking channels and seize large amounts of this stuff because that keeps prices up. But it's foolish to think we'll ever be able to stop the drug trade. We need to have realistic expectations when we consider our drug policies. Realistically, drugs have always been here and they always will be here. The best we can hope to do is keep the prices on the really addictive stuff high so that fewer try these drugs and fewer who do try them can afford to use these substances enough to become addicted, and hopefully we can get a handle on those few problem users who cause us the most trouble.

[eastforker]

Why does it take a foriegn country to get this story out here. I just saw this on the local FOX news but nothing in print.

[BJClinton]

LEOs that break the laws that they are meant to enforce are guilty of treason. IMHO, of course.