FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, May 22, 1998
Contact: Jeff Nelligan
(202) 366-6312
OIG 15-98
ILLEGAL HAZMAT SHIPPER SENTENCED
A U.S. District Court judge in Miami today sentenced Angel Dante Fuentes, president of a freight forwarding firm, to eight months’ imprisonment followed by eight months of home confinement for his role in the attempted illegal shipment of a hazardous material by passenger aircraft.
Fuentes, president of Executive Freight Consolidators Inc. of Miami, pleaded guilty in March to three counts of unlawfully shipping hazardous materials. He attempted to ship 500 pounds of "Dowicide A," a pesticide, to Quito, Ecuador, on an American Airlines passenger flight last Oct. 1.
The Dowicide, which was not properly labeled, had been checked by a courier as excess passenger baggage and only was discovered when one of the 50-pound bags tore during loading, releasing fumes that sickened several people nearby. The aircraft was evacuated.
Fuentes also was convicted of offering another 2,000 pounds of the Dowicide for transportation by ship from Port Everglades, Fla. to Ecuador last Oct. 6. He was charged in that instance with violating the labeling requirements of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act.
U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore placed Fuentes on 36 months’ supervised release in addition to his incarceration and home confinement.
The case was jointly investigated by the Department of Transportation’s Office of Inspector General, the FBI and the Environmental Protection Agency’s criminal investigation division.
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