WCNYH

Longshoreman Sentenced to 15 Years in Prison for Role in Cocaine Smuggling through the Port

October 5, 2012

           Longshoreman Shon Norville was sentenced today by United States District Court Judge Victor Marrero to 15 years imprisonment plus 5 years supervised release. Norville was also ordered to forfeit $180,000 in proceeds from the smuggling operation. Norville had pleaded guilty on May 18, 2012 before Magistrate Judge Theodore H. Katz to Conspiring to Distribute more than 5 kilograms of cocaine in violation of 21 USC 846.

           The investigation of Shon Norville arose out of an investigation of a Panamanian drug trafficking organization that was importing hundred-kilogram shipments of cocaine hidden inside shipping containers traveling through the Panama Canal, into secure areas of the Port of New York. The cocaine then was distributed in and through the Bronx and Manhattan, among other places. During the course of the investigation, law enforcement authorities identified a freight forwarding operation that removed the cocaine-laden containers from secure areas of the Port, and seized more than 1.3 metric tons of cocaine, valued at over $34 million, from the Panamanian organization and at the Port itself. The investigation later identified a local drug trafficking operation, led by Norville, which received hundreds of kilograms of cocaine smuggled into the United States from Panama in shipping containers. Norville was a longshoreman who used his access to the Port, and his relationships with other longshoremen, to bribe longshoremen to remove the drugs from shipping containers upon the cocaine’s arrival in the United States, while the containers were located in secure areas of the Port. An extensive wiretap investigation revealed that Norville smuggled or attempted to smuggle over 125 kilograms of cocaine, worth over $3 million wholesale, into the United States in 2010 via shipping containers. Law enforcement agents recovered 2 guns and hollow-point bullets from Norville’s residence when he was arrested for this conduct in October 2010. Norville was suspended from work at the waterfront by Commission action on October 12, 2010.