News Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: June 17, 2010
Contact: Rich Isaacson
Number: (313) 234-4310

Southern Cal Woman Charged For Transporting 500 Pounds of Marijuana Into Central Ohio Via Private Jet

JUN 17 -- (Columbus) – Today A federal grand jury in Columbus, Ohio, indicted Lisette Lee, 28, of Los Angeles, California with one count of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute more than 100 kilograms of marijuana and was charged with one count of possession with intent to distribute more than 100 kilograms of marijuana.

Carter M. Stewart, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, and Robert L. Corso, Special Agent in Charge, of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) Detroit Field Division, Columbus, announced the indictment.

DEA agents arrested Lee on June 14, 2010, after she and three other people landed at Port Columbus International Airport on a private jet chartered to fly them from Van Nuys, California. Agents found 23 bales of marijuana weighing approximately 506 pounds, in 13 large suitcases that had been offloaded from the private jet. The three persons who were travelling with Lee have not been charged at this time.

Each crime is punishable by at least five and up to 40 years imprisonment and carries a potential fine of $2 million.

Lee has been in custody since her arrest. A detention hearing for Lee is scheduled before U.S. Magistrate Judge Elizabeth A. Preston Deavers at 10 a.m. on Friday, June 18. An arraignment on the indictment will be scheduled by U.S. District Judge Algenon L. Marbley, who is presiding over the case.

Stewart commended the DEA agents who are conducting the ongoing investigation and Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy Prichard, who is prosecuting the case.

An indictment is merely an accusation. A defendant should be presumed innocent unless convicted in court.

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