California pilot and passenger in plane loaded with cocaine sentenced in Kansas

April 20th, 2010 - 2:26 am ICT by BNO News  

WICHITA, KANSAS (BNO NEWS) – A pilot and a passenger in an airplane that landed in Kansas were sentenced on Monday, prosecutors said.

The pilot, Dean Bryan Moya, 40, Hemet, California, and the passenger, Richard Allen Vickery, 31, Hemet, California, landed at the Liberal, Kansas Municipal Airport on October 22, 2009 carrying more than 114 pounds of cocaine in a Cessna 210 aircraft.

Moya had picked up Vickery and the cocaine in California, and he was taking the drugs to Ohio for distribution, where Vickery would shepherd the cocaine to Ohio for distribution.

Homeland Security’s Air Marine Operations Center tracked the aircraft flying from Northern New Mexico and notified the Liberal Police Department that Moya was piloting the aircraft despite having his license revoked due to drug use. At the Liberal airport, a specially trained dog searched and detected the presence of the narcotics.

Both men pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting the distribution of cocaine. Moya was sentenced to 60 months in federal prison, and Vickery was sentenced to 72 months.

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