An Atlanta man will spend more than 16 years in prison for trying to smuggle cocaine into the U.S. through Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.
Lincoln E. Son pleaded guilty last October to conspiring to import drugs from the Caribbean aboard international commercial flights, conspiracy to possess cocaine with intent to distribute and attempted possession of cocaine with intent to distribute.
He will serve 16 years and eight months in federal prison.
Federal prosecutors said Son, 38, was a member of a Caribbean-based drug-trafficking organization. He recruited Delta Air Lines employees at Hartsfield-Jackson to pick suitcases filled with cocaine from checked baggage ramps, bypass U.S. Customs inspection and smuggle the luggage off airport property.
The U.S. Virgin Islands native organized the smuggling of cocaine-laden suitcases from St. Lucia, St. Maarten, and Trinidad and Tobago, and received the drugs once they were outside the airport footprint, prosecutors said.
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