Man admits to unsuccessfully attempting to smuggle cocaine duct-taped to his ankles

A passenger who arrived on a ship at Port Everglades, Florida, with two packages of cocaine duct-taped to his ankles and two more hidden in his luggage pleaded guilty to federal drug-smuggling charges on Tuesday. Ryan Gibson, 34, admitted he tried to smuggle slightly more than two pounds of the drug from his native Bahamas to South Florida.



He was arrested soon after arriving on the Bahama Mama day cruise from Grand Bahama Island to Fort Lauderdale on Aug. 13. When U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers at the Broward County port found two brick-shaped packages of the drug in his suitcase, Gibson asked them to "please not say anything," Assistant US Attorney Terry Lindsey wrote in court records.



Investigators said they then patted down Gibson and found "two more brick-shaped packages taped to his ankles." Gibson, who said he was a scaffolding worker at a shipyard in the Bahamas before his arrest, told investigators he bought the cocaine for $16,000 in Freeport and planned to sell it in Broward, possibly at a flea market.


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Gibson pleaded guilty to one count of importing a controlled substance and one count of possessing cocaine with intent to distribute it. The charges each carry a maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison and a $1 million fine. Gibson has no plea agreement with prosecutors, but he will likely receive a lesser punishment because authorities said he has no prior criminal record. US District Judge William Zloch scheduled sentencing for Jan. 5 in federal court in Fort Lauderdale.