U.S. border officer sentenced for smuggling cocaine into Atlanta
Ivan Van Beverhoudt with his carry on luggage. Courtesy of the U.S. Attorney's Office.
ATLANTA - A former Customs and Border Protection Officer has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for smuggling cocaine, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Atlanta.
What we know:
Ivan Van Beverhoudt was arrested at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport on Jan. 10, 2020. Officials said Van Beverhoudt boarded his flight from St. Thomas to Atlanta that day with 16 bricks of cocaine in his carry-on luggage.
To avoid TSA screening in St. Thomas Van Beverhoudt traveled in his official capacity with his loaded CBP-issued firearm, the U.S. Attorney said.
When his flight landed in Atlanta, a K-9 trained by the same agency he worked for sniffed out the drugs in his bags.
Van Beverhoudt was convicted in February, but sentenced Tuesday.
What they're saying:
"Van Beverhoudt betrayed his badge by committing one of the very crimes he was entrusted to prevent—smuggling dangerous drugs into our country," said U.S. Attorney Theodore S. Hertzberg. "Our office and its agency partners will hold accountable any law enforcement officer who abuses his authority for criminal ends, and Van Beverhoudt’s twenty-year sentence demonstrates that such abuse will be met with severe consequences."
The Source: Information in this article came from a release by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Atlanta.