Ex-agent sentenced to prison for false statements, visa fraud

News Radio 88 ^

[areafiftyone]

(New York-AP) -- A former federal drug agent has been sentenced to 15 months in prison for lying and visa fraud.

Prosecutors say 41-year-old Eric Newton of Newburgh, New York, participated in a scheme to help Nigerian citizens enter the United States illegally. He was sentenced yesterday after a jury convicted him on March Third of conspiracy, making false statements and visa fraud.

Prosecutors say Newton committed the crimes while working as a deputy country attache at the D-E-A's Lagos Country Office at the U-S embassy in Lagos, Nigeria.

Newton's been accused of exploiting his position as a D-E-A agent to falsely obtain U-S visas for Nigerian citizens.

Prosecutors say that in the summer of 1999, Newton made false applications for visas on behalf of young Nigerians, The applications said the Nigerians needed to go to the United States for D-E-A-sponsored training or to participate in D-E-A-supervised law enforcement operations.

But the government says none of the Nigerians was a law enforcement agent or was traveling to the United States for those reasons.

[KirklandJunction]

Only fifteen months eh?

Perhaps being ex DEA his fifteen months will be jammed with social interaction?

[brat]

He'll be out in 3! They should make an EXAMPLE of this guy, instead they slap his wrist.

[JudyB1938]

I doubt it. They'll probably house him away from the main prisoners. Plus he won't do much time in prison - because of time served, early release, parole, etc. Then he can go live high on the hog with all those thousands and thousands of dollars he has stashed away. Ahhh .. the good life.