Coast Guard Commander Charged with Importing Narcotics
OAKLAND — A United States Coast Guard commander was charged with illegal importation of controlled substances Wednesday, a U.S. Justice Department spokesman said.
According to a complaint, James Silcox III, 41, received three shipments of Tramadol, a controlled substance and narcotic, to post-office boxes over the summer.
In July, an 865-gram package from Singapore headed for a post-office box was flagged by Customs and Border Protections officers at the U.S. Postal Service’s international mail facility at New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport.
Officers at the postal service’s San Francisco air-mail facility intercepted another 650-tablet Tramadol package from Singapore in August, before receiving another package September 13 that held 458 grams of Tramadol.
After law-enforcement officers swapped out the August package’s Tramadol for substitute material, they delivered it to Silcox’s post-office box Monday. He picked up the package the same day, and officers arrested him Tuesday at his Coast Guard Island residence.
Silcox was released on a personal-recognizance bond after appearing in San Francisco federal court Wednesday morning, and he will return Sept. 26 to identity counsel and attend a preliminary hearing before U.S. Magistrate Judge Kandis Westmore.
He faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine for each violation, but federal sentencing guidelines will ultimately affect any imposed sentence.
In addition, indictments are only allegations of committed crimes and Silcox is considered innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Sarah Griswold is prosecuting the case, which came from an investigation by the Homeland Security Investigations; the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area-Transnational Narcotics Team; the U.S. Postal Inspection Service; the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General; and the Coast Guard Investigation Service,
Filed under: General Problems
High intensity! Transnational narcotic team! Sounds really serious.
Flying around the world, eating exotic places, 5 star hotels, Lear jets…
They got a bottle of pills. How much did we pay for this?
What if tramadol and all of it was decriminalized?
We’re going to be bankrupt soon.
Also he was released ROR? Unheard of after millions of dollars spent.
I’ll bet he will get off citing he was conducting a covert investigation of his own!
Again, how can we find out how much did this bottle of tramadol cost us?
The guy ordered the pills over the internet and they came in though the postal office. The guy is a officer in the Coast Guard so he is certainly not going to run off anywhere either. The Coast Guard does not fly to Singapore. The Coast Guard only to protect American shores and territories. About the only service that would have a need to fly anything over to Singapore would be the air force or navy.
Meanwhile my thoughts on the story was what a stupid way to lose a career.
Wilcox is distributing illicit substances all while playing…..”good guy” and taking down legitimate physicians. Throw the book at the SOB not only for trafficking drugs but adding to legitimate prescribed pain management patient deaths if found guilty of trafficking illicit/illegal un prescribed tramadol which it seems VERY likely that is exactly what he is doing!
Correction, Silcox