3 Indians jailed for drug smuggling in US

A United States court has sentenced three Indians to prison -- terms ranging from 54 to 48 months -- and ordered their deportation after the jail term following their conviction in a case related to smuggling liquid ephedrine, disguised as "green tea extract", into the country.

Ephedrine is the main precursor necessary for the production of the controlled substance methamphetamine.

The three Indians -- Subhash Nathani (40) from Noida, Manoj Kovummal (42) from Bengaluru and Sachin Sharma (35) from Mumbai -- along with two others Antonio Gonzalez and Verlyn 'Craig' Payton were arrested in Las Vegas in November 2009.

While the court in Portland, Oregon, sentenced 57-year-old Gonzalezto to 96 months in prison, it awarded Payton and Kovummal 48 months jail term.

Sharma and Nathani were sentenced to 54 months in prison.

"This is the largest precursor chemical conspiracy ever prosecuted in Oregon, and one of the largest in the nation. With over USD 4 million in assets seized, this is also one of the largest forfeitures we have ever had in this office," US Attorney Dwight Holton said.

"Stopping the flow of such enormous quantities of ephedrine into Mexico goes a long way toward stemming the tide of the poison methamphetamine's return to the streets of the United States," Holton said in a statement.

In November of 2009, all five defendants were apprehended in Las Vegas where they were attending an international chemical extract conference. Search warrants were executed in Las Vegas, Forest Grove and San Diego following their arrests.

Law enforcement officials conservatively estimated that the ephedrine shipments would produce at least 2,500 pounds of pure ephedrine, 1,250 pounds of pure methamphetamine and a gross profit of $20 to $38 million from the sale of methamphetamine.

Naithani acquired the ephedrine from a company in Bangalore where Kovummal worked and Sharma was affiliated.

Over a two and a half year period, Gonzalez through Payton's business, Spring Dragon Sourcing, sent more than $7 million to India to purchase ephedrine.

Another indicted conspirator, Fabian Samuel of Bengaluru was arrested in May 2011 in Geneva on similar ephedrine-smuggling conspiracy charges arising out of this investigation. He is currently in custody in Switzerland and fighting extradition to the US.

This Oregon-based investigation spawned similar ephedrine importation conspiracy investigations around the nation as federal agents detected various ways foreign nationals were working with US citizens to circumvent strict ephedrine bans in both the US and Mexico, the Department of Justice said.

As part of the sentence, Gonzalez forfeited assets, including a Cessna airplane, luxury cars, including a Tesla electric roadster, real estate and about $2.2 million in bank and investment accounts.