Thirty-two-year-old Orlando Dennis was also ordered to pay US$136,000 (approximately J$20.6 million) to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) after pleading guilty to tax evasion charges.
In January, the Jamaican pleaded guilty to the latter charges, as well as to conspiracy to import cocaine through a deal that was offered by state prosecutors.
Dennis, who moved to the United States from Jamaica in 2008, has been married to Jevonni Brooks-Dennis since 2017.
Dennis was charged last year in the Eastern District of New York with conspiring with two JFK Airport baggage handlers to smuggle three kilos of cocaine into the US from Jamaica.
Brooks-Dennis has not been charged, but prosecutors alleged that the couple lived a lavish lifestyle that included shopping sprees and possession of a bank account with hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash.
Despite her husband's unlawful activities and fate, and her questionable spending sprees, Brooks-Dennis is still employed to the State Assembly speaker.
According to US media outlet, Times Union, Dennis was described by federal prosecutors as a US$25,000-a-year bakery delivery driver "who had been living a lavish lifestyle from drug trafficking".
Times Union further reported that the Jamaican's wife wrote a letter to the federal judge in relation to her husband's case, seeking leniency for him and describing him as "a loving husband, father, brother, and a friend to many”.
The letter reportedly further said that "In our relationship he has always gone above and beyond to make sure both myself and our children are happy and taken care of."
It added that, "It always warms my heart to see the loving relationship he shares with our daughter, and the joy he takes in being a dad."
Dennis benefitted from other letters of support describing him as caring and hardworking, from co-workers, supervisors and a former high school principal.
However, the US attorney's office offered a contrasting view of Dennis, describing him as "the leader of a drug trafficking group who lied about the source of his income and threatened violence against someone he believed (was) responsible for losing a bag of cocaine at an airport," reported Times Union.
Additionally, the US attorney's office disclosed that prior to his arrest, Dennis "had for years been making hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash profits that are unexplained by any legitimate business, suggesting that this was not his first narcotics offence."
Against that background, the prosecutors asked the judge to sentence the Jamaican to between 87 and 108 months in prison.
But the judge went against the prosecutors, opting to sentence Dennis to 76 months in jail on the cocaine-related charges, while ordering him to pay a fine in relation to the tax evasion charges.
In relation to Brooks-Dennis, federal prosecutors said she had "apparently benefited from her husband's illicitly gained wealth," but was not accused of wrongdoing.
"Still, her (Brooks-Dennis') government salary was not enough to support their opulent lifestyle that included large expenditures on designer clothing and accessories, prosecutors said in court filings," Times Union reported
It added: "Assembly payroll records indicated that around the time of her husband's arrest, Brooks-Dennis was paid about US$75,000 in a six-month period — from September 2019 to March."
In detailing the lavish lifestyle of the husband and wife duo, Times Union said that, "Between 2015 and 2019, Dennis had made more than 630 cash deposits totalling more than US$600,000 into his bank accounts.
"Those deposits were made as he had an annual take-home pay of less than $10,000 after money was withheld for child support obligations from a prior marriage, according to court records," the report elaborated.
Over the period, the Jamaican man and his wife reportedly spent thousands of dollars on brand name items
Source:-https://www.loopjamaica.com/content/jamaican-lavish-lifestyle-us-gets-6-years-drug-trafficking
