Ex-Belize Official Gets 7 Years in U.S. Drug Plot
Associated Press
RALEIGH, N. C. —
A former Belize government minister was sentenced Monday to seven years in prison and fined $50,000 for plotting to smuggle more than 1,000 pounds of marijuana and cocaine into the United States.
Elijio Briceno, 47, who served until last fall as minister of energy and communications for the small Central American country, was convicted on Aug. 1 of conspiring to smuggle marijuana and cocaine and of using the telephone to commit a crime. He could have received a maximum of 69 years in prison.
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