Marvin Forbes, Marijuana Smuggling, Virgin Islands 2021

A Florida man has pleaded guilty to smuggling a large quantity of marijuana through the Cyril E. King Airport in St. Thomas, USVI.

Marvin Forbes, a 49-year-old from Orlando, Florida, pleaded guilty to possession with intent to distribute 12.61 kilograms of marijuana just prior to the start of his trial.

The crime occurred on June 19, 2020, when Forbes arrived at the Cyril E. King Airport on Spirit Airlines flight #1610, which departed from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Upon arrival, United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers conducted a 100% inspection of Spirit’s checked bags. CBP K-9 ‘Sherpa’ later alerted to the presence of narcotics in Forbes’ checked bag.

After Forbes removed his bag from the baggage claim belt, CBP officers approached Forbes and 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 vacuum-sealed packages, each containing multiple smaller, individually vacuum-sealed packages of marijuana with a total weight of 12.61 kilograms.

Forbes was initially released on an unsecured bond and allowed to return to Orlando, Florida, on June 22, 2020. However, two days later, he was arrested in Orlando for larceny offenses. His supervised release was later revoked, and he was detained pending trial.

After pleading guilty, Forbes was remanded to custody pending his sentencing on August 6, 2021.

The case was investigated by the Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations and CBP. It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Delia Smith and is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) investigation, which identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level drug traffickers and criminal organizations that threaten the United States.

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