Mexican National Gets 46 Months for 1,295 Kilograms of Cocaine on Pacific Vessel

ST. THOMAS, U.S. Virgin Islands — A 65-year-old Mexican national was sentenced to 46 months in federal prison for conspiring to transport and possess with intent to distribute approximately 1,295 kilograms of cocaine aboard a stateless vessel intercepted in the Eastern Pacific.

Chief U.S. District Court Judge Robert A. Molloy imposed the sentence on Francisco Hernandez Penaloza last Friday in the District of the Virgin Islands, U.S. Attorney Adam F. Sleeper announced. Penaloza was one of three Mexican nationals found aboard a go-fast vessel that was dead in the water roughly 427 nautical miles southwest of Acapulco, Mexico.

According to court documents, the Royal Canadian Naval ship HMCS Yellowknife spotted the vessel during a routine patrol in international waters on Sept. 5, 2024. A U.S. Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachment aboard the Canadian warship conducted a right-of-visit boarding after the vessel was found floating adrift with bales and large fuel barrels visible on its deck. The vessel displayed no flag and no indicia of nationality.

The boarding team encountered three people on board and discovered 35 bales consistent with the packaging and transport of a large quantity of narcotics. A Drug Enforcement Administration laboratory confirmed the bales contained a total of 1,295 kilograms of cocaine. The three occupants were detained, and the vessel was sunk due to hull damage.

The case was investigated jointly by the U.S. Coast Guard, the DEA, and Homeland Security Investigations. Criminal Chief Kyle Payne of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of the Virgin Islands prosecuted the case.

The prosecution falls under the Homeland Security Task Force initiative established by Executive Order 14159, titled “Protecting the American People Against Invasion.” The HSTF is described as a whole-of-government partnership aimed at eliminating criminal cartels, transnational criminal organizations, and human smuggling and trafficking rings operating in the United States and abroad. The two remaining defendants have yet to be sentenced.