Samuel Knowles, who was extradited to Florida in 2006, was convicted of drug smuggling in March and ordered to forfeit nearly $14 million in illegal proceeds for bringing thousands of kilos of cocaine to the United States in 1995 and 1996.
MIAMI (Reuters) - A Bahamian designated by the White House as an international drug kingpin was sentenced to 35 years in prison on Friday by a federal court judge.
Samuel Knowles, who was extradited to Florida in 2006, was convicted of drug smuggling in March and ordered to forfeit nearly $14 million in illegal proceeds for bringing thousands of kilos of cocaine to the United States in 1995 and 1996.
The Bush administration had put Knowles on a blacklist that bars U.S. banks from dealing with suspected international drug traffickers or their companies.
Knowles faced a possible life prison term. But the U.S. Attorney's office said District Court Judge James Cohn in Miami limited his sentence to 35 years.
!ADVERTISEMENT!"At trial, the United States established that Knowles was the leader of a sophisticated, multi-national drug trafficking organization that utilized 'go-fast' boats to transport multi-ton quantities of cocaine from Colombia, Jamaica and the Bahamas to the United States," the office said in a statement.
(Editing by Xavier Briand)
