Judge Sentences Milford Pilot to 2.5 Years for Role in Coast-to-Coast Marijuana Pipeline

A Milford pilot who was caught transporting 400 pounds of marijuana into Connecticut has been sentenced to 2.5 years in federal prison for his role in the cross-country marijuana trafficking conspiracy, the U.S. attorney’s office said Tuesday. 

Donald Burns, 62, must also serve two years of supervised release, under his sentence by U.S. District Judge Janet Bond Arterton in New Haven.

The investigation began in 2016 with a probe by the Federal Aviation Administration into a Piper single-engine plane Burns owned, and the regular flights he was taking from Stratford to northern California and back via the southwest U.S.

Federal agents tracking the plane in 2017 found he stopped in Texas, Arkansas and West Virginia before returning to Sikorsky Airport in Stratford. Burns was arrested after federal officials searched his plane one night, finding about 400 pounds of vacuum-sealed marijuana, the attorney’s office said.

Investigators later determined the drugs were meant to be sold in Connecticut by Robert Capelli of Milford, Scott Bodnar of Ansonia, and Terrell Givens of Beacon Falls.

All three have since pleaded guilty in the case.

Over the course of more than two years, their trafficking ring earned millions of dollars by moving nearly two tons of marijuana from California to Connecticut, federal officials said.

They also laundered more than $6 million to purchase marijuana in California and pay Burns to fly it to Connecticut, among other expenses of the conspiracy.

Burns pleaded guilty in May to one count of conspiracy to distribute, and possession with intent to distribute, 1,000 kilograms or more of marijuana. He also forfeited his Piper aircraft.

Burns has been out on bond and must report to prison on May 26.

Capelli was sentenced in December to nearly 8 years in prison. Bodnar and Givens were both sentenced in September to roughly 4.5 years in prison.

Rebecca Lurye can be reached at [email protected].

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