OAKLAND — A drug courier managed to board a December 2018 flight bound for Utah with a package containing 12 pounds of cocaine, but was arrested after authorities seized his second package of the drug, according to recently released court records.
Eric Shoemaker put more than 24 pounds of cocaine inside vacuum-sealed, duct-taped packages, loaded the packages into two suitcases and booked a flight at Oakland International Airport. He made it to the terminal but was arrested by federal authorities, who’d detected the other 12-pound suitcase as it went through security, prosecutors said.
At a Sept. 13 hearing, a federal judge sentenced Shoemaker to 36 months in federal prison, less than half of what prosecutors argued was warranted for his “brazen” breach of airport security.
“All it takes is one time, one committed person bent on doing evil, to create immeasurable loss to countless families,” assistant U.S. Attorney Ryan Rezaei wrote in a sentencing memo, acknowledging one of the packages was actually loaded onto the flight. “These bricks could have been anything. It just so happened that on this occasion, these large bricks were only cocaine.”
The incident is the latest case involving allegations of prevalent drug smuggling at the Oakland airport. Last year, nearly a dozen defendants, including a baggage handler, were hit with federal charges that alleged thousands of pounds had been trafficked onto flights at the airport.
Federal authorities stopped Shoemaker in an airport terminal and asked him for identification, at which point he started to walk away, according to court records. Then he claimed his cousin had switched out his suitcases and the drugs weren’t his, according to court records.
Shoemaker’s attorney, Erick Guzman, asked for the three-year sentence, arguing his client was “being used” to transport drugs and was low on the chain. He said Shoemaker’s life had been marred by tragedy, including witnessing his brother being murdered.
“Mr. Shoemaker did not own the seized narcotics; he did not negotiate the terms of any large transaction,” Guzman wrote. “The Government and Probation agree that Mr. Shoemaker was a minor participant in a relatively large drug transaction.”
