TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) — A Tallahassee man has been sentenced to two years in federal prison for running a large-scale marijuana trafficking and money laundering operation, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Florida.
37-year-old Wesley D. Thomas was identified as the leader of a drug trafficking network that shipped thousands of pounds of marijuana from California and Oregon to Tallahassee. Prosecutors said Thomas regularly flew young couriers from the West Coast to Florida, instructing them to check suitcases packed with vacuum-sealed marijuana.
The scheme began to unravel when one courier was caught at Tallahassee International Airport carrying 61 pounds of marijuana upon returning from Oregon.
Authorities said Thomas also arranged for marijuana to be driven into the city. One driver was federally prosecuted in Georgia after being stopped with 100 pounds of marijuana, later telling investigators that Thomas had been paying him to transport 350–500 pounds every month for 18 months.
The investigation revealed that Thomas paid his couriers and associates through bank deposits, checks, wire transfers, and money orders as part of the money laundering conspiracy.
According to prosecutors, seven members of Thomas’s trafficking network have already been prosecuted and sentenced.
