Ninety-Year Old Drug Trafficker Sentenced To Three Years In Prison For Transporting 1,200 Pounds Of Cocaine Into Michigan
Leo Sharp was paid more than $1 million by Sinaloa cartel for his role in transporting cocaine and marijuana from Arizona to Michigan on multiple occasions
Contact: Public Information Officer
Number: (313) 234-4310
DETROIT - A ninety-year old man from Indiana was sentenced today to three years in federal prison for his role as a drug courier for a major cocaine trafficking organization with direct ties to the Joquin Guzman (a/k/a “Chapo” Guzman) Sinaloa cartel, announced United States Attorney Barbara L. McQuade, and James V. Allen, Acting Special Agent in Charge, of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’(DEA), Detroit Field Division.
Receiving the sentence was Leo Sharp, who pleaded guilty on October 8, 2013, to conspiracy to distribute cocaine. In addition to the prison sentence, United States District Judge Nancy G. Edmunds also ordered Sharp to pay $500,000 which includes forfeiture of real estate owned by Sharp in Florida.
United States Attorney Barbara L. McQuade stated, "In this case, it was important to balance the defendant's age with his conduct -- seven separate trips to transport more than 1,200 kilograms of cocaine across the country and into Michigan, for which he was paid more than $1 million by a major Mexican drug cartel. In light of this conduct, the defendant's age should not be a get-out-jail free card."
According to court records, Sharp had been a drug courier for the better part of a decade but it wasn’t until the fall of 2011 when he was stopped by law enforcement on Interstate 94 outside of Ann Arbor, MI, and found to be in possession of 104 kilograms of cocaine, that his extensive involvement with the drug trafficking organization was completely discovered. In fact, that particular seizure was only one such trip that Sharp and other couriers had undertaken to bring hundreds of kilograms of cocaine and marijuana to southeast Michigan from Arizona. Through the lead efforts of the DEA, law enforcement agencies were able to identify and indict nineteen individuals from across the country and into Mexico for their roles in this mass narcotics operation. Sixteen of the nineteen indicted individuals have pleaded guilty and have either been sentenced or are awaiting sentencing over the next several months.
To date, the investigation has led to the seizure of over 200 kilograms of cocaine and $3 million in narcotics proceeds.
