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HomeNewsPolice & CourtsFlorida Man Sentenced To 37 Months on Marijuana Trafficking Conviction

Florida Man Sentenced To 37 Months on Marijuana Trafficking Conviction

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Marvin Forbes, a 49-year-old from Orlando, Florida, was sentenced to 37 months of incarceration by District Court Judge Robert A. Molloy on his conviction of possession with intent to distribute marijuana after qualifying as a career offender in federal court, U.S. Attorney Gretchen C.F. Shappert announced Monday.

According to court documents, on June 19, 2020, Forbes arrived at the Cyril E. King Airport in St. Thomas on Spirit Airlines flight No. 1610, which departed from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. In St. Thomas, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers inspected Spirit Airline’s checked bags. A CBP K-9, named “Sherpa,” later alerted to the presence of narcotics in Forbes’ checked bag.

After Forbes removed his bag from the baggage claim belt, CBP officers escorted him to secondary for inspection. In secondary, CBP officers cut a lock that was placed on Forbes’ suitcase after he failed to produce the key to open the lock. Inside Forbes’ suitcase, CBP officers discovered eight (8) vacuum sealed packages, each containing multiple smaller, individually vacuum sealed packages, of marijuana with a total weight of 12.61 kilograms.

Forbes entered a guilty plea in U.S. District Court on May 17.

Shappert said Forbes qualified as a career offender pursuant to the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines based on the facts that: (1) he was at least 18 years old at the time he committed the offense of conviction; (2) his conviction is a felony that is either a crime of violence or a controlled substance offense; and (3) Forbes had at least two prior felony convictions of either a crime of violence or a controlled substance offense. As a career offender, Forbes’ guideline sentence was increased from 24 to 37 months of incarceration.

This case was investigated by the Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations and CBP. It was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Delia Smith and is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces investigation.

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