SEATTLE – A 67-year-old former resident of Rhode Island, Texas, and Chicago was convicted late Friday in U.S. District Court in Seattle connected to his scheme to smuggle duffle bags full of drugs across the Strait of Juan de Fuca using a jet ski and an inflatable raft to get the drugs to his contact on Vancouver Island.
You might remember our story from April of 2021 when a family on a beach near Port Angeles found a partially submerged duffel bag on the beach. The family alerted law enforcement who found more than 50 pounds of meth inside the bag, as well as two pounds of fentanyl powder. Soon after, a different beachcomber discovered a partially submerged and deflated Zodiac-style raft on the beach and noted a U-Haul van coming and going from the beach area. Then, just days later, a different beach walker reported finding seven more duffel bags stashed under a bridge just up from the beach. Those bags contained 342 pounds of meth. The estimated wholesale value of the drugs in Canada was about $1.5 million.
John Sherwood was convicted following a six-day trial of multiple drug charges and conspiracy to commit international money laundering.
The FBI was able to trace the duffel bags to Walmart and could pinpoint the sale, identifying the buyer as Sherwood. Other evidence such as U-Haul rental records, motel registration, and storage locker records linked Sherwood to the smuggling attempt.
At the trial, evidence revealed that Sherwood had brought the drugs up to the Olympic Peninsula from southern California, but the smuggling attempts failed.