Brice Todman, 36, of St. John, United States Virgin Islands (USVI) was sentenced today, February 13, 2019, in District Court before District Court Judge Curtis V. Gomez on a charge of bringing illegal immigrants into the United States, U.S. Attorney Gretchen C.F. Shappert announced. Photo: VI Consortium

Judge Gomez sentenced Todman to six months incarceration followed by three years of supervised release. The judge also ordered that Todman pay a $100 special assessment, forfeit the $4,000 paid to him by the immigrants and the vessel used to bring them into the Virgin Islands.

According to court documents, on October 21, 2018, at approximately 9:00 p.m., U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Air and Marine Operations (AMO) apprehended a Virgin Islands-registered vessel in the area of North Haulover Bay, St. John after agents observed that the vessel was operating with no lights.

After AMO agents stopped the vessel, they observed five male individuals on board. Todman was identified as the captain and the other four male individuals were from the Dominican Republic, Argentina and Venezuela and did not have permission to be in the United States. Two of the four immigrants admitted to agents that they had paid Todman $ 1,000 to transport them from Tortola, BVI to St. John.

The case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), CBP, AMO, and was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney, Sigrid M. Tejo-Sprotte.