Lauzon sentenced as part of 2008 bust

United States Attorney Richard S. Hartunian announced the sentencing of a Fort Covington man for conspiracy to possess and possess with intent to distribute marijuana.

Phillip Lauzon, 50, of Fort Covington, New York, was sentenced today by Senior United States District Judge Frederick J. Scullin to a term of probation of two years following his plea of guilty to conspiring to possess with intent to distribute and distribute between 20 and 40 kilograms of marijuana around October 2008. Lauzon played a minor role in a large-scale marijuana conspiracy in which numerous kilograms of marijuana were brought from the Akwesasne Mohawk Indian Reservation (AMIR), near the U.S./Canadian border, to the Onondaga Indian Reservation in Nedrow, New York.

In his role as a co-conspirator, Lauzon was a courier who delivered marijuana from the AMIR to co-conspirator Joan Papineau, of Nedrow, New York. On October 19, 2008, as part of a pre-arranged plan, Lauzon delivered 50 pounds of marijuana to Papineau at her residence. When Lauzon left the residence and began to drive northbound on I-81 he was stopped by law enforcement and $109,326 was seized from Lauzon’s truck, most of which had been concealed inside two shoe boxes gift wrapped to appear as birthday presents, with several thousand dollars more seized from the truck’s center console. Lauzon subsequently admitted that he had received this money, the total amount of which was unknown to him, for marijuana delivered to Papineau.

Lauzon’s two year term of probation will include drug and alcohol testing, as determined by the U.S. Probation Office. He was also ordered to pay a special assessment of $100.