Five More Defendants Sentenced to Federal Prison for Marijuana Trafficking and Money Laundering Conspiracy

PENSACOLA, FLORIDA – Five defendants were sentenced to federal prison this week after having pled guilty to conspiracy to distribute marijuana and conspiracy to commit money laundering.  The sentences were announced by Christopher P. Canova, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Florida.

Yesterday, the following defendants were sentenced on both charges:

• Charles Zachariah Sindylek, 32, of Pensacola, 90 months in prison and
• David DelGiacco, 56, of Lake Forest, California, 30 days in custody of the Bureau of Prisons.

Today, the following defendants were sentenced on both charges:

• Brandon Craig Remeyer, 35, of Trabuco Canyon, California, 72 months in prison and
• Andrew Paul Marcelonis, 32, of Pensacola, 18 months in prison.

Also today, Steven Ryan Michael Sholly, 31, of Milton, was sentenced to 59 months in prison on conspiracy to distribute marijuana.

Co-defendants Sanford Eugene Johnson III, William Brett Brownell, and his father William Ezra Brownell had previously pled guilty and were sentenced last November.

Between 2014 and 2017, the defendants conspired to distribute more than 100 kilograms of marijuana in the Northern District of Florida.  Johnson, William Brett Brownell, Sholly, and others in the Pensacola area ordered the marijuana from Sindylek and Remeyer, who shipped packages of marijuana from California to Florida with the assistance of DelGiacco.  Johnson, William Brett Brownell, and Sholly then sold the marijuana in Florida with the assistance of Marcelonis, William Ezra Brownell, and others.  The cash proceeds of the marijuana distribution were laundered through bank accounts, and later mailed to addresses in California.  More than $3.5 million in cash proceeds from the sale of marijuana was laundered during the time frame of the conspiracy.

This case resulted from an investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Internal Revenue Service–Criminal Investigation, the Pensacola Police Department, the Mobile Police Department, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office, the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office, the Gulf Breeze Police Department, and the Gulf Coast High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) program.  Assistant United States Attorney Alicia H. Forbes prosecuted the case.

This prosecution is part of an extensive investigation by the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF).  OCDETF is a joint federal, state, and local cooperative approach to combat drug trafficking and is the nation’s primary tool for disrupting and dismantling major drug trafficking organizations, targeting national and regional level drug trafficking organizations and coordinating the necessary law enforcement entities and resources to disrupt or dismantle the targeted criminal organization and seize their assets.

The United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Florida is one of 94 offices that serve as the nation’s principal litigators under the direction of the Attorney General.  To access public court documents online, please visit the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida website.  For more information about the United States Attorney’s Office, Northern District of Florida, visit http://www.justice.gov/usao/fln/index.html.