Ngoc Nguyen, 22, and Fendi Brooks, 26, both from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, were sentenced on Thursday for conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine, United States Attorney Gretchen C.F. Shappert announced.
District Court Judge Curtis V. Gomez sentenced Nguyen to 63 months imprisonment and Brooks to 77 months imprisonment. Judge Gomez also sentenced both Nguyen and Brooks to five years of supervised release and 300 hours of community service.
According to court documents, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Officers at the Cyril E. King Airport discovered 12 brick-like bundles of what appeared to be a white powdery substance smuggled into a suitcase Brooks had checked in under her name but that both Brooks and Nguyen claimed to share. Subsequent lab testing revealed that eleven of those bundles contained cocaine powder (approximately 10.9 kilograms), while one of the packages contained a kilogram of cocaine base (crack) (approximately 1.01 kilograms).
Both Brooks and Nguyen had $1,300 in $100 bills on their persons.
This case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and the United States Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), and was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Meredith J. Edwards.
Share On Facebook
Tweet It
