Smuggler gets reduced sentence

BANGOR – A Croatian merchant sailor was sentenced Wednesday in U.S. District Court to 53 months in federal prison for importing the stimulant drug Ecstasy into the U.S. more than a year ago.

Oliver Kragic, 47, also was sentenced by Judge George Singal to three years supervised release, or probation. Most likely, however, he will be deported after his prison term. Singal ordered Kragic to report to the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

The merchant seaman was arrested on Dec. 21, 2001, in Searsport. Kragic was a crew- member aboard the Julia, a cargo carrier en route from the Netherlands to Port Everglades, Fla., with a stop at Searsport. During an inspection of the ship, U.S. Customs officers found 10 plastic bags, each containing approximately 10,000 Ecstasy tablets, located in Kragic’s quarters behind the headboard of his bed.

Kragic pleaded guilty in late September to two counts of importation of a controlled substance. The second charge originally was filed in Florida after Kragic was implicated by others in the Ecstasy-importing scheme. The Florida case was transferred to Maine last year.

The judge imposed the same sentence on each count and ordered that they be served concurrently. Singal also applied to the sentencing guidelines a recently approved provision that allowed him to reduce Kragic’s sentence because he was a courier, or mule, not the mastermind of the plan or a mid-level distributor of the drugs.

Robert Mowdy of Bradford, who conducts Bible-study classes at the Piscataquis County Jail where Kragic has been held, asked the court to impose a lenient sentence. Mowdy said that Kragic’s wife died of cancer about five years ago as the war in his country was winding down. He got into debt and agreed to bring the drugs to the United States to help pay off the loan. Mowdy offered to house Kragic if house arrest could be part of his sentence.

Addressing the court in English, even though he had an interpreter provided by the court via phone, Kragic said he was sorry that he lied to law enforcement officials when he was first arrested and expressed gratitude to the judge and his court-appointed attorney.

“Thank you for everything,” he said. “God bless your country and God bless everybody.”

Kragic could have been sentenced to a maximum of 20 years in prison on each count. Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Perry did not object to the terms of the sentence. “Justice has been done,” he said.

In other matters:

. Amanda Newell, 19, of Perry was sentenced to 12 months and a day in prison and three years probation for importing Dilaudid into the U.S. from Canada. The maximum sentence is 20 years. Perry said she had crossed the border 71 times between April and June 2001 carrying hidden drugs to support her own habit.

. Bernard Bert Taylor, 55, of North Vassalboro was sentenced to 25 years in prison, two years short of the maximum, and five years probation on charges of unlawful transport of firearms, being a felon in possession of a shotgun and being an armed career criminal. Taylor has a lengthy record and is currently incarcerated at the Maine State Prison in Warren.