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Jamaican Man Accused of Supplying 59 Pounds of Cocaine to Flight Attendant
A brazen attempt to smuggle nearly 60 pounds of cocaine through Los Angeles International Airport has led to the indictment of a Jamaican national on federal drug charges. Gaston Brown, 39, allegedly supplied the narcotics to Marsha Gay Reynolds, a former Jet Blue flight attendant, who pleaded guilty last month to federal drug charges.
According to court documents, Brown provided the cocaine to Reynolds, who used her ‘known crewmember’ credentials to attempt to bring the narcotics through a security checkpoint at LAX. The massive seizure of cocaine was a result of a coordinated effort by the Los Angeles International Airport Criminal Enterprise Task Force, an inter-agency task force based at LAX.
The Task Force, which includes representatives of the FBI, the DEA, United States Customs and Border Protection, the Transportation Security Administration, the Los Angeles International Airport Police Department, the Los Angeles Police Department, and the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department, provides a coordinated law enforcement effort to target airport/airline internal criminal enterprises that use the aviation system to transport large amounts of illicit drugs throughout the United States and various international destinations.
Brown, who is currently serving a one-year-and-one-day federal prison sentence after being convicted in the Southern District of Florida of illegal re-entry after deportation, faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in federal prison and a maximum possible sentence of life if convicted of the drug trafficking charges.
Prosecutors allege that Brown conspired with Reynolds to possess and distribute the cocaine, which they claim was a significant amount. The indictment marks a major blow to the alleged drug trafficking network and highlights the dedication of law enforcement agencies to disrupting these networks.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Reema M. El-Amamy of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force. Brown is expected to face an arraignment in mid-February, after a federal judge issued a writ directing that he be brought to Los Angeles from his current location. Every defendant is presumed to be innocent until and unless proven guilty in court.
Key Facts
- State: California
- Category: Drug Trafficking|Fraud & Financial Crimes|Violent Crime
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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