Bond denied for ex-Navy SEAL with CIA ties in SC marijuana smuggling case

Federal Magistrate Judge Paige Gossett on Friday denied bond in a marijuana smuggling case to J.D. Smith, a decorated former Navy SEAL who also worked for the CIA.

Gossett made her decision after a more than four-hour hearing at the U.S. federal courthouse in Columbia during which assistant U.S. Attorney Ben Garner asserted that Smith – who stayed in homes in Tennessee, Alabama amd elsehwere – was both a danger to the public and a flight risk.

New government evidence disclosed Friday during the detention hearing revealed that since Smith’s arrest in June, authorities had seized more than $420,000 in cash from Smith and his two co-defendants in the case, Columbia area brothers Carl and Bryon Rye. The Ryes were arrested after a raid in a house at 3905 Rosewood Drive around the same time Smith was.

Also seized since the arrest were more than 15 handguns and rifles, night vision goggles, large quantities of ammunition and “escape and evasion” equipment that included food, medical supplies, a rappelling rope and pistols, Drug Enforcement Agency agent Barry Wilson testified.

Evidence in the case alleges that for years, Smith has flown around the country in his two-engine Cessna, dropping off loads of marijuana to local drug dealers such as the Rye brothers, Wilson testified under questioning by Garner.

The Ryes would get from 20-60 pounds of marijuana when Smith flew into the Columbia area, sometimes landing at Owens Field, and “that was only a small portion of what Mr. Smith was transporting to other customers,” Wilson testified.

The marijuana was high-quality medical marijuana from California, according to evidence in the case.

Smith’s lawyers put up testimony that Smith, who had an excellent record as a SEAL, was neither a flight risk nor did he pose a danger.

“Who deserves a chance more than J.D. Smith – a war hero?” attorney Greg Harris told Gossett. With Harris were two Oklahoma attorneys, Jacquelyn Ford and Jim Buxton, who had been hired by Smith’s mother, who also lives in Oklahoma.

Harris argued that Smith’s mother was going to put up “her life savings” for any bond and that he had three children in Virginia that he would not desert, Harris told The State after court. Since Smith had lived by a code of honor in the SEALS and in his life, Smith would not bolt and run, Harris argued.

Garner countered Harris by telling the judge that Bryon Rye had once heard Smith say “someone who tells on another should die” and that Smith carried a gun while he was dealing in marijuana.

But after Gossett deliberated about 15 minutes, she ruled that the prosecution’s arguments carried more weight.

Since his arrest, Smith has been cooperating with authorities, but one recent lie detector test administered by the FBI indicated deception, Wilson testified.

Smith and the two Ryes were arrested last month by Drug Enforcement Administration agents after a years-long investigation by DEA and other law enforcement agencies, including the FBI and the Richland County sheriff’s department.

Informants first told law enforcement about the case. But over the years, the DEA used cell phone “pings,” tracking devices, bank records, search warrants on cell phones and various kinds of human and electronic surveillance to build their case.

If convicted, Smith faces a minimum five-year sentence on the marijuana trafficking charges and another five-year sentence added onto that to be served consecutively for firearms offenses.