AUGUSTA, Ga.- A man who had been on the FBI’s Top 10 most-wanted list was sentenced to 35 years in prison for running a ring that smuggled tons of cocaine from Colombia into the United States.
James S. Springette, 45, had faced a maximum of life in prison at his sentencing Monday. He pleaded guilty in 2003 to running an operation that involved airplanes, boats and even an ocean cargo freighter, which was confiscated in 1996 with more than 13,000 pounds of cocaine hidden on board.
Springette was a fugitive until his capture in Venezuela in November 2002.
He estimated he made $33 million while running the operation between 1991 and 1999. It was the arrest of Augusta-area drug dealers that led investigators to Springette’s network, which funneled drugs to the U.S. through the Virgin Islands.
The federal sentence does not include the possibility of parole. Springette was also fined $4 million.