A Louisiana owner-operator was recently sentenced to nearly six years in prison for drug trafficking.
Rusty Ross Honore, 42, of New Iberia, Louisiana, pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana in July to a charge of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine and marijuana.
U.S. District Judge Michael J. Juneau has ordered Honore to serve three years of supervised release once he finishes his prison sentence and pay a fine of $10,000.
In March 2020, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Investigations launched a probe after receiving a tip that Honore was distributing cocaine in the Lafayette, Louisiana, area, according to the Department of Justice statement.
Court documents alleged that from March to June 2020, Honore, along with two co-conspirators, possessed and distributed approximately 207 pounds of marijuana and 2 kilograms of cocaine.
Honore previously served six years in prison after pleading guilty in 2006 to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine and marijuana. He was released from prison in 2012 and served another two years of supervised release.
According to federal documents, Honore applied for and received a $13,540 loan for his one-truck operation to help keep his business afloat from the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) in February, two months after his arrest on drug trafficking charges in December 2020.
Honore has been ordered to self-surrender to the U.S. Marshals Service by 1 p.m. on Dec. 27.
Honore’s attorney, J. Kevin Stockstill, did not respond to FreightWaves’ request for comment.
Click for more articles by Clarissa Hawes.
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