District Court Judge Wilma A. Lewis on Thursday sentenced Jakwaan Sweeny Jr., 22, of St. Croix, to six years in federal prison for trafficking cocaine, U.S. Attorney Gretchen C.F. Shappert announced.
According to court records, on Sept.24, 2018, Sweeney provided his co-conspirator with a travel bag containing 22.78 kilos of cocaine and an airline ticket to Atlanta. On the day of travel, Sweeney’s co-conspirator entered the Cyril E. King Airport and checked the bag for the flight. During a routine screening, Customs and Border Protection officers discovered the cocaine. Sweeney’s co-conspirator entered a guilty plea to the federal cocaine conspiracy charge in 2018.
In addition to 72 months incarceration, Judge Lewis also sentenced Sweeney to five years supervised release, imposed a $1,500 fine, and ordered him to pay a $100 special assessment.
This case was investigated by the Department of Homeland Security Investigations and CBP. It was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Everard E. Potter and is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force investigation, Shappert announced.
According to Shappert’s statement, The task force “identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level drug traffickers, money launderers, gangs, and transnational criminal organizations that threaten the United States by using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach that leverages the strengths of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies against criminal networks.”
