Oceanside

A U.S. District judge sentenced a former Oceanside man to 18 years in jail and fined him $100,000 after he admitted smuggling marijuana.

The sentencing Thursday by Judge Howard Turrentine came after Raymond Angel Rabreau, 46, pleaded guilty to four felony counts of operating a continuing criminal enterprise, importing marijuana, transporting currency illegally outside the United States and filing a false tax return.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Pat Swan said a co-defendant, Tina Louise Weber, 26, of Oceanside also pleaded guilty to two felony counts: unlawfully using a telephone to facilitate a controlled substance and conspiring to import marijuana.

Weber faces a maximum sentence of four years in jail and a $250,000 fine.

Investigators said Rabreau helped in a plan to smuggle a 13-ton load of Thai marijuana into the United States in the fall of 1987 and a 20-ton load into the country last August. Although the first shipment was smuggled successfully into the Santa Barbara area, the second load was intercepted by authorities.

The investigation was conducted by the Drug Enforcement Administration, the U.S. Customs Service, the Internal Revenue Service and the U.S. Coast Guard.