Russell Robinson led police on a high-speed chase across St. Thomas before being apprehended; jury rejects his claim of coercion in the 210-kilogram cocaine operation

ST. THOMAS — United States Attorney Delia L. Smith announced today that Russell Robinson, 58, of St. Thomas, was sentenced by Chief District Judge Robert A. Molloy to 25 years incarceration followed by 10 years of supervised release after a federal jury found him guilty of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine and possession with intent to distribute cocaine.

In 2003, Robinson was charged with conspiracy to import and possess cocaine and money laundering. In 2007, Robinson was sentenced to 160 months of incarceration.

According to court documents, on November 29, 2021, at approximately 10:15 p.m., Customs and Border Protection Air and Marine Operations agents detected a vessel traveling from St. John towards Vessup Beach, St. Thomas without navigational lights. After the vessel arrived at Vessup Beach, aviation agents observed the individuals onboard the vessel offloading large packages to three individuals at Vessup Beach. The large packages were then loaded into a gray Toyota Tundra truck operated by Robinson which departed Vessup Beach.

Aviation agents provided continuous location coordinates for Robinson’s truck to Drug Enforcement Administration agents on the ground. As Robinson approached the Waterfront area of St. Thomas, agents attempted a traffic stop, but Robinson refused to stop. A high-speed chase then ensued with Robinson traveling from downtown Charlotte Amalie through Savan and Solberg and ultimately Hull Bay where he came to a stop. Agents set up a perimeter at the entrance of the Hull Bay roadway while aviation agents maintained surveillance of the truck.

Robinson and his passenger, Trevor Stephen, exited the vehicle and threw the large packages from the truck into the nearby bushes. Federal agents later recovered seven duffle bags which contained 210 kilograms of cocaine with an estimated street value of $2.1 million dollars.

In June 2023, a mistrial was declared as to Robinson after Stephen alleged that Robinson brandished a firearm, threatened his life, and forced him to load the duffle bags of cocaine into Robinson’s truck. The Court severed the case into two separate trials and proceeded with the Stephen’s jury trial. The jury rejected Stephen’s duress claim and found him guilty of possession with intent to distribute cocaine. Stephen was sentenced to 37 months of incarceration after the court determined that his role in the drug transaction was minor as compared to Robinson.

Robinson’s jury trial commenced in March 2024, where he testified that he was also forced by a gunman to participate in the drug transaction. Robinson further testified that the gunman exited his vehicle shortly after the cocaine was loaded into his truck, but well before he fled from law enforcement and collided with one of their vehicles during the high-speed chase. The jury rejected Robinson’s testimony and returned guilty verdicts on the cocaine conspiracy and cocaine possession charges.

“Robinson’s conviction and sentence expose the challenges law enforcement agents face in enforcing drug trafficking laws. After Robinson refused to stop his vehicle, agents pursued him and Stephen in a high-speed chase from the east to west of St. Thomas and through several residential areas before they were finally apprehended. Their dedicated service is a testament to their commitment to keeping our community safe”, U.S. Attorney Smith said.

“The sentence imposed marks a significant victory in our ongoing battle against the illicit drug trade”, stated, DEA Caribbean Division SAC Denise Foster. “The unity and collaboration among our law enforcement partners were instrumental in bringing these individuals to justice. The brave actions of our task force officers, who put their lives on the line, exemplify the unwavering commitment of the DEA Caribbean Division and our partner agencies,” Foster said.

This case was investigated by Customs and Border Protection Air and Marine Operations, Drug Enforcement Administration and Homeland Security Investigations and was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Kyle Payne and Natasha Baker.

Source:  https://viconsortium.com/vi-crime/virgin-islands-st–thomas-man-sentenced-to-25-years-in–2-1-million-cocaine-trafficking-case

Ok this is published in an outlet called oilprice.com so they will have a certain outlook on the world but i thought the article was worth highlighting simply because this is the 2nd time in a week the issue of Hezbollah in South & Central America has popped up.

First here..

Hezbollah denies links to drug kingpin killed in Syria..”We don’t smuggle drugs, we smuggle weapons,

and now in OilPrice who write….

• Hezbollah operates a sophisticated network in South America, carrying out terrorist attacks and engaging in criminal activities like drug trafficking and money laundering.
• Venezuela, under President Maduro, has become a safe haven for Hezbollah, offering logistical support and fostering close ties.
• Stricter sanctions on Venezuela could push the country further into illicit economies, benefiting Hezbollah and destabilizing the region.

After Hamas’ savage October 2023 assault on Israel which claimed 1,200 lives, mostly civilians, Hezbollah ramped up its confrontational posture, sparking fears of further terror attacks. The militant Lebanese political group, for decades, has acted as a powerful proxy actor for Iran’s theocratic regime. Hezbollah, which the U.S. designated as a foreign terrorist organization in 1997, earned a menacing reputation for bombing civilian targets and involvement in a host of criminal activities, notably narcotics and arms trafficking as well as money laundering. Hezbollah’s sizable but overlooked presence in Latin America poses significant risks. It gives the militants access to lucrative illicit economies along with the ability to strike soft targets in a region lacking robust counter-terrorism capabilities. In the wake of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s fraudulent electoral victory, Hezbollah will expand its South American presence as Iran ramps up support for the murderous regime to counter stricter U.S. sanctions.

Hezbollah participates in a host of criminal and terrorist activities across Latin America. Among the Shiite militant’s most notorious terrorist attacks in the region is the 1992 suicide bombing of Israel’s Embassy in Buenos Aires Argentina, where nine embassy personnel and scores of civilians were killed. Then there was the 1994 attack on Buenos Aires’s AMIA Jewish community center where a suicide bomber claimed 85 lives and left hundreds injured, making it Argentina’s deadliest-ever terrorist attack. It is speculated that Hezbollah, along with Brazilian organized crime groups (Spanish), masterminded the May 2022 murder of Paraguayan organized crime prosecutor Marcelo Pecci while he was holidaying in Cartagena Colombia. Brazilian authorities, in cooperation with Israeli intelligence, recently uncovered a Hezbollah network that was planning to attack Jewish targets in Latin America’s largest country.

Those events underscore the sophisticated nature of Hezbollah’s South American networks and the destabilizing influence they inflict on a politically volatile and vulnerable region. For decades, allegations have swirled over Hezbollah’s operation of training camps in South America and deep involvement in the continent’s cocaine trade, particularly in the Tri-State area a globally recognized hub for illicit economies. Over the last 20 years criminal activities, especially cocaine trafficking and money laundering have emerged as key sources of income for Hezbollah. It is inevitable that the Shiite militia would engage in such a lucrative activity with a global market valued at north of $100 billion annually. As a result, it is believed that Hezbollah has emerged as a major player in Europe’s cocaine trade which is valued at up to $12 billion each year. Estimates vary but cocaine smuggling is thought to generate up to three hundred million dollars annually for Hezbollah. This makes narcotics trafficking the second largest source of revenue for the Lebanese militia which is only surpassed by Teheran’s funding believed to be worth $700 million annually.

South America’s lawless Tri-Border area was at the center of Hezbollah’s criminal network for decades, but the rapidly growing importance of cocaine trafficking for its finances saw the terrorists expand into South America’s Northern Andean countries of Colombia, Ecuador, and Venezuela. You see, strife-torn Colombia is the world’s largest cocaine producer, while Venezuela and Ecuador are key international transshipment hubs. The dismantling of Hezbollah’s narcotics and money laundering networks in the Tri-Border area by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) incentivized the militants to relocate the center of operations to Northern South America. This was given further momentum by lawlessness in Colombia, which is locked in a multi-decade low-level asymmetric conflict, and Venezuela, where Hugo Chavez’s 1999 Bolivarian revolution triggered democratic backsliding and widespread corruption.

The large Lebanese and Shiite Muslim diasporas in Colombia and Venezuela provide readily exploitable communities for Hezbollah to infiltrate. The radical Lebanese Shiite militants do this by leveraging family ties to build networks of legitimate and illicit businesses which are used to generate income and launder the proceeds of crime to fund operations in the Middle East. Colombia, as the world’s largest cocaine producer, is particularly important to Hezbollah because the Andean country’s long history of weak central governments and lawlessness has allowed illegal armed groups to flourish. The tremendous profits generated by cocaine production are responsible for financing Colombia’s nearly 70-year-long low-intensity armed conflict. According to the United Nations Office On Drugs And Crime (UNODC) 2022 cocaine production hit an all-time high of 1,738 metric tons, which is a whopping 24% increase compared to 2021. This sparked fears that cocaine shipments from Colombia would outstrip oil seeing the narcotic become the Andean nation’s top export.

Soaring cocaine production is not only responsible for funding illegal armed groups that are challenging the government and soaring rural violence but also attracts the attention of transnational criminal syndicates like Hezbollah. The Lebanese militants forged connections with various Colombian illegal armed groups involved in the cocaine trade, notably the Oficina de Envigado, Gaitanist Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AGC – Spanish initials), and Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC – Spanish initials). After the 2016 FARC peace accord, Hezbollah went on to forge relationships with dissident bands that rejected the deal. Colombia’s leftist guerillas for decades operated along the porous border with Venezuela, where they continue to maintain a significant presence to this day.

After Chavez assumed office and initiated his socialist Bolivarian revolution in February 1999 Caracas cultivated relationships with Colombia’s leftist FARC and National Liberation Army (ELN – Spanish initials) guerillas. The leftist regime went on to provide arms, logistical support, and safe havens in Venezuela to Colombia’s leftist guerillas. Following the 2016 peace accord, dissident FARC bands and elements of the ELN went on to expand their operations in Venezuela, notably in cocaine trafficking, extortion, and illegal gold mining, as the rule of law and government control in remote regions broke down. This allowed those illegal armed groups to operate with impunity while amassing considerable wealth and power, to the point where they provided basic public services to communities in the areas abandoned by Caracas. The Chavez regime went on to foster associations with other U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organizations and armed groups, notably Hezbollah.

https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/How-Hezbollah-Is-Exploiting-Cocaine-Corruption-and-Chaos-in-Venezuela.html