By I have to wonder where this guy was getting his weed from?:
He said he started distributing drugs to make friends. But to win a lighter sentence for his crimes, he’s willing to testify against those “friends.â€
Pfc. Elisa Gonzalez, a mechanic assigned to the 18th Medical Command, was sentenced to 13 months in prison, a bad-conduct discharge, forfeiture of pay and allowances and a demotion to E-1 after pleading guilty to drug-related charges Tuesday at Yongsan Garrison.
Prosecutors sought a two-year prison term, a sentence Gonzalez’s defense lawyer called excessive.
Gonzalez was charged with selling and giving away about 55 grams of marijuana between April and July 2007. He also was charged with possession and use of the drug and attempting to distribute it to two military policemen.
According to prosecutor Capt. Richard Gorini, Gonzalez was caught in a July 12 sting in which he tried to sell investigators 2.8 grams of marijuana. Investigators found another 1.3 grams in his pocket.
As part of a pretrial agreement with prosecutors to limit his sentence, Gonzalez pleaded guilty and agreed to testify against others in what attorneys described as a marijuana ring at Camp Humphreys. [Stars & Stripes]
It will be interesting to see if these idiots smuggled the weed in through the mail or not.
USFK is having some serious drug issues unlike anything I have seen in recent years. Last year a percocet ring was busted on Osan Airbase and just a week ago a marijuana drug ring was broken up on Camp Casey as well. The first thing that comes to mind is were their unit’s urinalysis programs being conducted properly? I say this because it appears these guys had no fear of taking drugs in Korea despite the threat of a monthly urinalysis program.Â
Well at least these guys will not have to travel to far to reach the 8th Army confinement facility because it is located right there at Camp Humphreys.Â
11:38 am on January 23rd, 2008 1
Take my word for it…right now, there are more drugs 'n' thugs in the military than at any time since the '70s, and it's only going to get worse as these members of generation Y get promoted into the NCO ranks.
11:44 am on January 23rd, 2008 2
Hey, if he testifies about his suppliers maybe some civilian jobs will be opening up in the Hump area soon.
12:24 pm on January 23rd, 2008 3
Cloying_odor,
Good one! I agree completely the overall civilian community isn't watched over like the military.
Mark would agree us lazy civilians (contractors) are the real problem here. I personally haven't had any run ins, but have heard through the grape vine a few things in my 5 years here.
Also it seems some of the biggest rings for anything in Iraq involve civilians as they can get their hands on things with more ease.
Happy job hunting!!
1:04 pm on January 23rd, 2008 4
Looks like he needs a new scale.
1:59 pm on January 23rd, 2008 5
Matt, I don't know about that…I believe the real problem is the way in which we coddle generation Y through basic, AIT, and even once they arrive at their duty station.
For example, just this past weekend, a first sergeant on the Casey drunk bus attempted to take control of a couple drunk privates who were rowdy and using racial slurs. He told them "at ease," and then they started to backtalk and sh!t.
Guess what? The first sergeant is booked on simple assault for putting his hand on them!!!!!
Then there are the young punks who drew a knife on me and threatened me with a pool cue at the Asia Club in TDC ville a couple months ago, because they didn't like the Seahawks? Gimme a break.
Discipline and respect for authority no longer exists.
To many, this is just a trifling bit of plebe knowledge. In actuality, it symbolizes the tough product formed by a tough Beast Barracks or initial entry training. Compare the life of a recruit or new cadet today to the hardships of one a decade or so ago, and you will see that in most cases the leather produced today is merely pleather, and maintains all its hair, fat, and extraneous matter, i.e., drugs.
Moral waiver. When once you could recruit druggies and thugs and then break them down and rebuild, now there is no breaking-down process, so they are sent to their units "as-is" for green-tabbers to deal with, which is an uphill battle in itself with the likes of Trial Defense Service doing everything possible to get guys off the hook.
I could go on and on, but my rule of thumb is that if one has to use the scroll wheel to read a blog comment, then it is already too long….
By the way, I do look forward to being a lazy contractor someday…not with Northrop Grumman, Cubic, Raytheon, et al., but rather, with Blackwater.
2:10 pm on January 23rd, 2008 6
Shoot first, ask no questions.
3:27 pm on January 23rd, 2008 7
Mark,
HA HA, Remember if you see me in Iraq Don't shoot! I could have SOMETHING you need!
3:31 pm on January 23rd, 2008 8
4:30 pm on January 24th, 2008 9
Where did the "smarter" generation go. They were suppose to be in the army in the 90's weren't they? I never saw them. Now, in the army we have inner city worthless crap that I couldn't care any less about. From the worthless comments made by CSM Foster about letting a whore dress however she wants and cramming her full of alcohol (a drug) and then absolving her of any responsibility for drunk worthless inner city scum raping her. The army has a problem that will take years to correct. We have 1SGs that have previously had no leadership time, they treat there company as if it were a team, they do not teach their NCOs, or soldiers what there jobs are and we complain when we have E7s instead of SFC's. I have watched the army go to hell in a hand-basket in the last 15 of my 25 years. I'm sure people will rebut and say if I don't like it leave and thats the attitude I expect from todays army. I don't know the story about the NCO on the drunk bus, but that just goes to show that there is a severe shortage of discipline among the ranks. I remember when a soldier did what he was told, not because of the fear of punishment, but the soldier did what he was told because he was respectful. Some soldiers are entering the army without anyone teaching them what respect is. Respect is taught by very few parents these days, the poor performance is a direct reflection of their parents poor parenting skills and thats the way it is.
11:53 am on January 29th, 2008 10
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