The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas has sentenced Debra Lynn Mercer-Erwin, owner of the Wright Brothers Aircraft Title Co. and Aircraft Guaranty Holdings Corp., to 16 years in federal prison, five years of supervised release, and a $400 special assessment, the Department of Transportation Office of Inspector General (DOT-OIG) said yesterday. According to the DOT-OIG, Mercer-Erwin and others carried out a scheme to further international drug trafficking using business aircraft.

She was found guilty in May 2023 of conspiracy to commit money laundering and wire fraud, possessing cocaine with intent to distribute, and distributing cocaine knowing it would be imported into the U.S. Under the scheme, Mercer-Erwin and others registered aircraft with the FAA while concealing that foreign nationals owned the aircraft, and falsely claimed they would adhere to all regulatory and statutory requirements.

According to prosecutors, several of the illegally registered and exported aircraft were used by transnational criminal organizations in Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Belize, Honduras, Guatemala, and Mexico to smuggle large quantities of cocaine destined for the U.S. The illicit proceeds from the subsequent drug sales were then transported as bulk cash from the U.S. to Mexico and used to buy more aircraft and cocaine.

Aircraft purchases were typically completed by foreign nationals, working for transnational criminal organizations, who came to the U.S. with drug proceeds and purchased business aircraft.