Woman faces prison in Calif.-to-Ohio pot scheme

[June 10, 2011]  COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- A California woman who initially claimed ignorance about the contents of multiple suitcases she was bringing to Ohio faces up to 10 years in prison Friday when she is sentenced in a $3 million marijuana shipping scheme.

After her arrest in in June 2010, Lisette Lee told investigators she planned to visit a boyfriend and transport equipment to a horse farm. She also said a friend paid her $60,000 to take suitcases from Los Angeles to an unattended hotel room in Columbus, stay for a few days and return with fewer pieces of luggage, the government said.

Lee later told investigators that she and her entourage knew the horse story was phony and that they were likely involved with "weapons and money laundering or something," authorities wrote in court papers.

Lee, 29, pleaded guilty in February to one count of conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute more than 2,000 pounds of marijuana.

In a letter to U.S. District Court Judge Algenon Marbley earlier this week, Lee said she deeply regretted getting involved in drugs.

"I have been shocked and appalled at the devastation caused by drug usage, and cannot even begin to express how sick I feel inside for even having danced around the fringes of this world, ignorant as to its relentless destruction," Lee wrote.

Lee's lawyers argue that the year she has spent in custody is enough time behind bars and a long period of supervision would deter her from future crimes. They also said she was approached by a co-defendant, David Garrett, because of her naivety and her access to her family's private jet.

Federal authorities have said Lee was the primary courier in a group of four or five people carrying out a scheme that distributed about 7,000 pounds of the drug overall and made more than $3 million from November 2009 through April 2010.

Garrett, accused of supplying the marijuana for Lee to transport, was sentenced in April to 10 years and one month in prison after pleading guilty last year to distributing more than 2,000 pounds of marijuana.

Six people have either pleaded guilty or agreed to plead guilty since prosecutors announced their indictment last year.

[Associated Press; By ANDREW WELSH-HUGGINS]

Andrew Welsh-Huggins can be reached at http://twitter.com/awhcolumbus.

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