A 32-year-old Guyanese man who was arrested at the John F Kennedy Airport in New York in February 2014 by United States federal agents as he was about to leave the country after failing to declare over US$35,000 has been jailed for a year and a day over conspiracy to import cocaine.
According to court documents seen by Stabroek News, the US$35,000 that Vilton Bourne had with him has also been forfeited.
Bourne pleaded guilty to the conspiracy charge on August 18, 2015. A preliminary order of forfeiture was entered on November 11 last year.
According to the February 11, 2016 judgment seen by Stabroek News, Bourne has to surrender to the US marshal on June 8th this year to begin serving the sentence.
Upon release from prison he will be on supervised release for five years.
On February 20, 2014, Bourne was selected by Customs and Border Protection officers for an outbound enforcement examination. He was instructed to declare in sum all monies he was transporting both on his person and in luggage.
However, Bourne declared US$9,000 on his Customs and Border Protection 909 declaration form. A CPB officer asked Bourne to present the
