Asian Drug Ring Figure Gets 10-Year Sentence
A key participant in a drug ring that smuggled up to 60 tons of marijuana from Southeast Asia was sentenced in Los Angeles Thursday to 10 years in prison.
Eugene LaForce, 55, received the minimum term for his conviction May 22 on 10 federal counts of narcotics trafficking in connection with one of the largest marijuana smuggling operations ever uncovered on the West Coast.
Prosecutors portrayed LaForce, an Oregon resident, as a leader of the smuggling operation between 1983 and 1988 and sought a 15-year prison term. During a two-month trial, prosecutors alleged that LaForce helped organize several shipments of marijuana off the coast of Thailand.
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