Three Men Sentenced to Federal Prison for Possessing Over $1 Million Dollars Cash Onboard a Vessel Outfitted for Smuggling

ST. THOMAS — Ashen Tirado Tapia, Jahniel Fuentes Robles, and Abdiel Rivera Medina, all from Puerto Rico, were sentenced today for possession of $1,128,940.00 cash onboard a vessel outfitted for smuggling, United States Attorney Gretchen C.F. Shappert announced. District Court Judge Robert A. Molloy sentenced Tirado Tapia and Fuentes Robles to 34 months incarceration each, three years of supervised release, and ordered each to forfeit $1,128,940.00 to the United States, and pay a $100 special assessment. Rivera Medina was sentenced to 30 months of incarceration, three years of supervised release and ordered to pay a special monetary assessment of $100. According to court documents filed in this case, on September 17, 2019, at approximately 1:26 a.m., the defendants, Ashen Tirado-Tapia, Jahniel Fuertes Robles, and Abdiel Rivera Medina, were onboard a 25-foot center console vessel traveling with no navigation lights near the western portion of St. Thomas. A Customs Border Patrol Air and...