ATLANTA — A man will spend the next decade behind bars after being found guilty of smuggling dozens of kilograms of cocaine hidden in tubs of butter to the United States.
Amos Christolin, also known as “Patizan,” 52, of Miami, was the last defendant in the case to be sentenced, according to U.S. Attorney Ryan K Buchanan.
Before Christolin’s trial, Vital Joseph, 47, of Douglasville, and Jean Yves-Durogel, 48, of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, had been sentenced in the same case.
According to court documents, on Aug. 24, 2017, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers in Miami conducted a border search of a shipment that was bound for the metro Atlanta area from Haiti.
Authorities searched the shipment and found 28 packages of white powder hidden within tubs of Haitian butter. Officials confirmed that the packages tested positive for cocaine and weighed 28 kilograms.
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The investigation revealed that the shipment was headed to a business in Austell.
When authorities made a controlled delivery of the drugs to the business, they were met by Joseph, who was another defendant named in the case.
According to court documents, Durogel had been the source of the drugs and shipped at least four previous loads of cocaine that were hidden in butter from Haiti to Joseph in the United States.
When the drugs got to Joseph, court documents said he would then distribute them to individuals in the Miami area, previously identified to him by Durogel.
One of the individuals Joseph distributed to was identified as Christolin.
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Throughout the investigation, agents determined that over 100 kilograms of cocaine had been shipped from Haiti to the United States. According to court documents, the price of the drugs would have been over $3 million.
“Together, we were able to prevent a substantial amount of drugs from reaching the streets. I’m proud to stand alongside our partner agencies as we work to stop these criminal enterprises that pollute our neighborhoods with their poison,” Acting Special Agent in Charge Travis Pickard, who oversees Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) operations in Georgia and Alabama, said. “HSI will continue to work with our federal, state and local law enforcement partners to disrupt and dismantle these drug trafficking organizations and prevent them from flooding our communities with illicit drugs.”
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Christolin was sentenced to 10 years in prison, followed by five years of supervised release.
Durogel was sentenced to six years eight months in prison, followed by five years of supervised release.
Joseph was sentenced to six years and six months in prison, followed by five years of supervised release.
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