District Court Senior Judge Raymond L. Finch on Tuesday sentenced Ramon Lacen-Santiago to 10 months in prison for bulk cash smuggling, U.S. Attorney Ronald W. Sharpe announced.
Finch ordered the 41-year-old Lacen-Santiago, a resident of Puerto Rico, to serve half of his sentence in prison and half in home confinement. He sentenced Lacen-Santiago to three years of supervised release and ordered him to pay a $2,000 fine and a special assessment of $100.
According to Sharpe, on March 25, 2012, agents of the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Task Force received information that a codefendant of Lacen-Santiago would be traveling with large sums of money through St. Croix’s airport. During a security check of Lacen-Santiago and his co defendant, a canine alerted on two bags belonging to them. The bag belonging to Lacen-Santiago contained $6,249. A search of his person revealed another $39,000 in his pockets.
Lacen-Santiago told the agents he was traveling to St. Martin with the codefendant. A search of his codefendant uncovered $38,270 concealed on his person.
The case was investigated by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Alphonso Andrews Jr.
