LOS ANGELES– The United States Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California says a Jamaican national has been sentenced to nearly 14 years in jail in a US federal prison after he was found guilty of supplying a JetBlue flight attendant with almost 60 pounds of cocaine that she attempted to smuggle on board a flight at Los Angeles International Airport.
The US Attorney’s Office said Gaston Brown, 42, of Clarendon, Jamaica, was sentenced to 13 years and nine months in jail by United States District Judge Christina A. Snyder after a US federal grand jury indicted Brown in January 2017, charging him with two counts of conspiracy to possess and distribute cocaine, one count of unlawful use of a means of identification, one count of use of a counterfeit access device, and one count of aggravated identity theft.
It said that, after a four-day trial in February 2018, a jury found Brown guilty of all charges.
The court heard that on six occasions, between October 2015 and March 2016, Brown paid JetBlue flight attendant Marsha Gay Reynolds, 35, of Jamaica, Queens, New York, to transport cocaine and drug money across the US.
The US Attorney’s Office said Brown paid her to carry the drugs and cash in suitcases through “known crewmember” checkpoints at Los Angeles International Airport and New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport.
“As a known crewmember, Reynolds was subjected to much lighter screening at airport security checkpoints and would be able to transport the cash and cocaine without being stopped,” the US Attorney’s Office said.
To evade detection by law enforcement, it said Brown, an illegal immigrant, and convicted felon, used identities he had stolen from two mentally disabled men “so he could meet Reynolds in the ‘sterile’ area of the airport, past security.
“While in the airport’s sterile area, he retook possession of the drug- and cash-laden suitcases and traveled across the country with them, undetected,” the US Attorney’s Office said.
On March 18, 2016, it said Brown supplied about 27 kilograms (59.5 pounds) of cocaine to Reynolds.
She then attempted to board a JetBlue flight. After showing her official badge and identification to the Transport Security Administration officer on duty, she was randomly selected for additional screening.
It said Reynolds was then escorted to a secondary screening area.
“Upon arriving at this checkpoint, Reynolds dropped her luggage, removed her shoes, and fled the area, running down an upward-traveling escalator and away from TSA officers,” the US Attorney’s Office said, adding that Reynolds eventually surrendered herself to the US Drug Enforcement Administration at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York on March 23, 2016.
The US Attorney’s Office said she remained in custody while her case was pending and ultimately pleaded guilty in December 2016 to one count of conspiracy to possess and distribute cocaine.
In April 2018, she was given credit for time served and was released, the US Attorney’s Office said.
It said Brown was indicted for the charges in this case while in federal custody for illegally attempting to re-enter the United States in April 2016 following deportation.
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