John Michael Sherwood was convicted following his failed attempt to smuggle large quantities of methamphetamine and fentanyl from southern California to Canada’s Vancouver Island, .U.S. authorities reported.
Evidence presented at trial showed that he transported the narcotics to Washington State’s Olympic Peninsula, which is connected to the Canadian border via a narrow strait. From there, his plan was to ferry the drugs across the border to his contact, Kevin Gartry, according to documents made available to OCCRP by the U.S. Justice Department.
As Sherwood attempted to make the crossing, he lost a portion of his load and was forced to turn back, where he then stashed the remaining drugs in various locations along the beach. This proved to be the fatal flaw in his plan, as beachgoers soon discovered them.
One family reported that, on a beach near Port Angeles, they uncovered a duffle bag and police then found 50 pounds of meth in it and two pounds of fentanyl powder, the statement said.
Around the same time, police were alerted by another beachcomber who noticed Sherwood’s partially submerged and deflated Zodiac-style raft as well as a U-Haul van that had made several trips to and from the beach area.
Days later, a third passerby uncovered seven more duffel bags stashed under a bridge near the beach, which together contained 342 pounds of methamphetamine, investigators said.
The FBI later connected the duffle bags to Sherwood by confirming he purchased them at a Walmart using the store’s surveillance footage. Investigators also linked him to the U-Haul’s rental records and to his Canadian contact via his phone records.
He was eventually located and arrested in Idaho with more than 100 pounds of marijuana in his vehicle. Court documents show that, following his arrest, he told investigators he was working with Mexican drug traffickers.
Two unidentified individuals also later came forward to testify that Sherwood admitted to them that he was involved in the drug smuggling business, and that he was working with an individual named ‘Kevin’.
Another of Sherwood’s co-defendants, Erika Bocelle, has already pleaded guilty and is pending sentencing. Gartry, meanwhile, is still in Canada pending extradition.
Prosecutors have called Gartry a “notorious Canadian cross-border drug smuggler.” He was previously sentenced to more than 11 years in prison for a separate drug trafficking conspiracy in June 2012.
Sherwood also has a prior conviction for which he served time in prison; court documents show that he and Gantry met in 2019, during their shared time in a Texas corrections facility.
The jury needed only three hours of deliberation before convicting Sherwood. Sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 29, 2024.
