Saturday, August 20, 2011
Associated Press
COLUMBUS
Financial troubles forced a California man to take an unspecified security job that turned out to involve a scheme to ship thousands of pounds of marijuana to Ohio, a lawyer said in a filing that asked for a light sentence for Young Ko.
The filing also revealed that an employee of a charter airplane company whose plane was used to deliver the marijuana tipped federal drug authorities to the scheme in 2010.
Ko is one of six people who have either pleaded guilty or agreed to plead guilty in the $3 million scheme that authorities say brought more than 7,000 pounds of marijuana to Ohio hidden in suitcases aboard private planes.
Ko, 37, pleaded guilty in February to one count of conspiring to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute more than 2,000 pounds of marijuana.
Ko’s problems began in 2009 when he lost his job at a security company and at the same time his fianc e was reduced to part-time hours in her family’s retail business in California, the filing said.
Ko had “enthusiastically” become a father figure to his fianc e’s twin sons, and it was necessary for both to work full-time to support the family, according to the filing.
As a result, Ko was open to the job offer he received from David Garrett to provide security to Garrett’s girlfriend on flights to Columbus.
Although Garrett assured him the flights were legitimate, Ko later learned they involved marijuana shipments, according to the filing by Ko’s attorney.
“I simply could not accept the possibility that I wouldn’t be able to take care of my family’s needs,” Ko said in a letter to U.S. District Court Judge Algenon Marbley.
Attorney Dennis Belli is asking Marbley to consider a light sentence or even probation and home detention for Ko, who now works full-time at a California trucking company.
In June, Marbley sentenced Lee to six years in prison and a $20,000 fine for her role coordinating the flights on her family’s private jets in 2009.
Federal authorities say Lee was the primary courier for the scheme operating from November 2009 through April 2010.
Garrett, accused of supplying the marijuana for Lee to transport, was sentenced in April to 10 years and one month in prison after pleading guilty last year. A message was left Friday with Garrett’s attorney seeking comment.
The scheme unraveled in June 2010 when DEA agents arrested Lee at Port Columbus airport and found hundreds of pounds of marijuana in 13 suitcases Lee had brought on a chartered flight from Van Nuys, Calif.
The arrest came with federal drug authorities “Acting on a tip by an employee of the charter company,” Thursday’s filing said.
The government has yet to file its position on punishment for Ko, who is scheduled for sentencing next week.