I tend to be a pretty sympathetic person, even to people who do bad things. However, here’s a case where I have no sympathy…
In this post:
Former CBP officer sentenced to prison for drug smuggling
45-year-old former US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officer Ivan Van Beverhoudt has just been sentenced to 20 years in prison, following his convictions for importing and possessing with intent to distribute over 15 kilograms of cocaine.
The man worked for years as a US CBP officer in St. Thomas, in the US Virgin Islands. The origin of this case dates back over five years, to January 10, 2020, when Van Beverhoudt boarded a Delta flight from St. Thomas (STT) to Atlanta (ATL) with 16 bricks of cocaine in his two carry-on bags.
To avoid Transportation Security Administration (TSA) screening, he traveled in his official capacity, with his loaded CBP-issued firearm, allowing him to skip the standard security screening. That seems like the ideal way to smuggle drugs by air, eh? Well…
Upon arrival in Atlanta, a CBP-trained narcotics K-9 officer in the jetway alerted to Van Beverhoudt’s luggage, which led to the discovery of the cocaine. Interestingly, it doesn’t seem that authorities were tipped off to him being on the flight and possibly having drugs. Instead, it was just a random inspection, as St. Thomas flights are reportedly considered high risk for these purposes.
As you’d expect, it took quite some time for this case to makes its way through the system. On February 24, 2025, following a five-day jury trial, Van Beverhoudt was convicted of conspiracy to import cocaine into the United States, importation of cocaine into the United States, conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine, and possession with intent to distribute cocaine.
Then on July 8, 2025, Van Beverhoudt was sentenced to 20 years in prison, followed by five years of supervised release. Here’s how US Attorney Theodore Hertzberg describes this case:
“Van Beverhoudt betrayed his badge by committing one of the very crimes he was entrusted to prevent—smuggling dangerous drugs into our country.Our office and its agency partners will hold accountable any law enforcement officer who abuses his authority for criminal ends, and Van Beverhoudt’s twenty-year sentence demonstrates that such abuse will be met with severe consequences.”
I’m happy this guy is being held accountable
Often I’m sympathetic toward drug smugglers. Like, not sympathetic in the sense that I don’t think there need to be repercussions, but sympathetic for the ways in which they ruined their life with their actions.
For example, I’ve seen more than my fair share of episodes of “Locked Up Abroad,” where people end up being jailed abroad, typically for drug smuggling. In some cases, I can see the circumstances that caused them to act the way they did. Often they’re backpackers who are just on an adventure to discover themselves, they meet someone, and next thing you know, they’re traveling somewhere with a bag, and not aware of the contents. They’re not necessarily bad people, and they just didn’t think through the consequences of their actions.
But in this case, I really have no sympathy whatsoever. This guy abused his position as a CBP officer, and even specifically traveled in an official capacity so that he wouldn’t be detected.
It’s interesting that it sounds like he wasn’t actually under surveillance, so it was pure coincidence that he got caught, when the flight was randomly inspected for drugs. One certainly wonders if this was his first trip of this sort, or how often he had executed this successfully in the past.
Bottom line
A US CBP officer has been sentenced to 20 years in jail, after he smuggled 16 bricks of cocaine on a flight from St. Thomas to Atlanta. He traveled in his official capacity, and even brought his firearm so that he wouldn’t have to go through security.
Unfortunately for him, the flight was randomly selected for screening on the jetway, and a K-9 officer alerted to his bags. He was then arrested, and has now been sentenced.
This is the worst kind of drug smuggling, where someone tasked with stopping drugs smugglers instead became one. One wonders how often he had done this prior to getting caught…
How could this be racist? Facts are facts. It is a black dude.
Wow just like in the Hollywood movies ! The real life scenario.
In 26 years as an airline pilot, I have never seen a police dog show up in a jetway to sniff bags. I've had the police show up at the plane for different reasons. Guy's very unlucky or they were tipped off.
ATL - has a lot of entertainment Production these days.
Easy hits for law enforcement.
A quick google will show you several incidents of Money / drug dogs on the Jet Bridges in ATL
You should try flying from AMS or from various Caribbean airports (CUR, UVF, TAB). At least, that was my experience where I've seen sniffer dogs upon arrival.
Makes me wonder about the rules and what the rules should be for using the official lanes for TSA and CBP workers....Agree with the comment that he should have gotten a harder consequence because it is clear he knew what he was doing and risked it.
The big question; is the enough felonies to qualify to be the next US president? I guess it would also be required to be a Republican. If he is leaning left, the felonies are a bad thing. Don’t believe me, ask Fox Not-News.
What this Officer did was completely harmless and nonviolent. It would be a travesty to have him imprisoned for 20 minutes, let alone 20 years. America's prison population is embarrassingly world-leading for the very simple reason that we are all too happy to imprison nonviolent "offenders."
We should also repeal all drug laws, that's a conversation for another topic I guess.
Another spam comment. Is that you, Eskimo? Your racism gets called-out so suddenly you're going to start masquerading as a blue-haired non-binary fat-activist human rights lawyer from San Francisco? Abolish prison, abolish money, ACAB, right?
"Harmless": https://nida.nih.gov/research-topics/trends-statistics/overdose-death-rates#Fig2
Using cocaine is most certainly not harmless, but the Officer merely transported the substance which is completely inert in transit
I am indeed from San Francisco (but do not live there currently), I do support prison abolition, but none of the other accusations lobbed at me by Pete have veracity.
What is so bad about cocaine? SERIOUSLY!
And my ex girlfriend was hot see I am ok using it!
A small percentage of people who try cocaine become physiologically addicted.
Other than that the riskiest element of cocaine is the potential for criminal penalties.
A civil and educated society would repeal all drug laws, collect a tax on recreational drugs, and implement compassionate healthcare for the treatment of addiction.
Nonsense. The cardiovascular effects of cocaine are serious. It causes heart attacks and strokes. This is a fact. But you're not here for facts, you're hear to make childish comments and stoke controversy. Weak. Pathetic, and weak.
Kinda funny this comes up after I made the point to someone else on the TSA article who was complaining about KCM random screening. I'm glad this officer is being held accountable for his actions.
Smuggling 16 bricks of cocaine is not a first try.
Oh, he's almost certainly done it one or twice before.
As a CBP Officer that worked with him, I can tell you he was a Lazy guy and when the previous LEO (the Governor escort) from STT was caught in STT airport going to Florida with 7 kilos of cocaine by our K9. I guess he was the one who won the job interview to be his replacement. I pretty sure there has to be one doing it more low key. We
Earn good...
As a CBP Officer that worked with him, I can tell you he was a Lazy guy and when the previous LEO (the Governor escort) from STT was caught in STT airport going to Florida with 7 kilos of cocaine by our K9. I guess he was the one who won the job interview to be his replacement. I pretty sure there has to be one doing it more low key. We
Earn good money as a LEO
But the people that do this don’t have the integrity and cave in to the . They should be punished more because they swore an oath. If you don’t know, as a LEO you have to have a clean record, no Felony’s good financial records and can’t Lie. No drug use, also a back ground check every 5 years. When the government jobs are opened nationwide 10K applicants apply because out that number less than 1K will be selected to go to the academy.
Like you Ben I also watch 'Banged up abroad' and there are some sad stories.
But the common denominator seems to be that drug smugglers rarely get caught the first, second, third......time. And each time they are not caught their confidence increases, along with the quantities carried and risks taken.
Somehow, I doubt this was the first time the CBP officer did this. 15KG in hand baggage is no small stash.
And here I thought, only Mexicans and other Central Americans bring drugs to US.
Nope....blacks do as well.
You tend to be sympathetic towards people who do bad things ? You’re “happy” because this person was law enforcement because you sympathize with backpackers on a tv show you watched ? I’d have to read the case myself as this article is poorly written with loopholes but 20 yrs sounds a bit much.
kinda just sounds like your reading comprehension needs a little work lol
Love it
Maybe try again.
Locked up abroad was a great show. We don’t know who the CBP officer is no need to jump to assumptions about getting what they deserved.
So he’ll be sent to El Savador’s CECOT, right?
No they’re sending your people to alligator Alcatraz in Florida. Netflix show already coming.
Hopefully he’ll be sent to South Sudan.
20 years seem very light... In many countries this would easily be a death penalty. Also I believe LEOs that are caught should be punished harder than regular people: they know exactly what they're doing and they're abusing their position to help facilitate what they're doing. Because of that they're harder to catch, and they can smuggle a lot more than the average Joe, so a heavy punishment is needed to deter.
How do we define what is a light vs heavy sentence? 20 years for a 45 year old will take him to 65 years old with massive red flags in future employment opportunities. To be honest I'm not sure how different that is compared to a life sentence
That being said on the other hand I agree that the fact that this was a badged officer makes this far worse
Twenty years in federal prison followed by five on supervised release seems like a severe sentence to me. In many civilised countries that's the lead-in sentence for convicted murderers. That should deter all but the most determined. People keep getting caught by countries that execute drug traffickers, so the death penalty is no deterrent either.
20 years seems harsh. Especially when you consider that Michael Slager received a 20-year sentence for killing Walter Scott. 2nd degree murder, in my opinion, is far worse than smuggling drugs.
Playing devils advocate, that amount of cocaine could cause multiple ODs or get a lot of people addicted. There's a high probability of harm from bringing that amount of cocaine into the country, which could quite easily end or ruin more lives than one police officer did. Add to that this CBP officer knew what he was doing was illegal, and was abusing his position to do it for his own personal gain, and 20...
Playing devils advocate, that amount of cocaine could cause multiple ODs or get a lot of people addicted. There's a high probability of harm from bringing that amount of cocaine into the country, which could quite easily end or ruin more lives than one police officer did. Add to that this CBP officer knew what he was doing was illegal, and was abusing his position to do it for his own personal gain, and 20 years seems reasonable. This wasn't a case of a tourist bringing a little back for their own personal use, which IMO would merit a much lighter sentence.
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@ Julie @ Eskimo @ James @ Mason @ Truth @ Facts -- I'm confused how the same email address is used for all those usernames, but the message is the same regardless. Your racism has no place here. Going forward, your comments will be moderated, and only manually approved if they follow commenting guidelines.
Kind of creepy to think that all those “commenters” are one person using sock puppet names, assuming that’s what’s going on.
Creepy and absolutely pathetic.
Thank you, Ben!!!
Good job Ben .. And not a K9 officer needed
at least he flew a Premium airline while doing this
Can you monitor these stupid comments, too?