BALTIMORE, Maryland (CMC) — The United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency says a Jamaican-born member of a marijuana trafficking organisation has been jailed for murder in aid of racketeering.

ICE said that US District Judge William D Quarles on Thursday sentenced 52-year-old Hubert Downer, otherwise known as ‘Doc’, to 20 years in prison followed by three years of supervised release for murder in aid of racketeering.

The victim, a drug courier, was kidnapped and dismembered in a bathtub, ICE said.

It said the sentencing comes after an investigation by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the Baltimore County Police Department, and the Anne Arundel County Police Department in Maryland.

William Winter, special agent in charge of HSI Baltimore, said the Downer’s sentence for murder in aid of racketeering “is the culmination of a long-term investigation for HSI special agents, who, since 2009 have been investigating the Jean Brown drug trafficking organisation, which spanned five states and three countries.

“HSI special agents have seized approximately 100 pounds of marijuana, US$853,000 in cash and bank accounts and six firearms from these co-conspirators, who used intimidation and violence to further their criminal activities.

“HSI will continue working with our law enforcement partners to investigate and ultimately dismantle criminal organisations that are wreaking violence in our communities through the illicit drug trade,” Winter said.

According to the plea agreement and court documents, Jean Brown and Carl Smith led a drug organisation that obtained marijuana in Arizona and California and used trucking companies that Brown owned and operated to transport the marijuana to Maryland, Pennsylvania and New York on a monthly basis.

Court documents indicated that Downer helped distribute the marijuana for Brown and that the conspirators transported as much as 1,000 pounds of marijuana per month from 2000 until Brown’s arrest in 2010.

The documents said that on December 16, 2009, Brown and Smith met with Michael Knight, another member of the organisation, in Maryland.

They said knight was holding about one million US dollars in drug proceeds for Brown, but when they came to collect the money, about US$250,000 was missing.

Winter said Brown, Smith and Dean Myrie took Knight, bound with a telephone cable, to an apartment in White Marsh, Maryland, where Brown “assaulted and interrogated Knight.

“Subsequently, Brown and Smith got Downer and Peter Blake, another member of the drug organisation, to help torture Knight to reveal the location of the money. When Knight did not provide the location of the money, Brown ordered Downer and Blake to kill Knight.

“Downer and Blake took a large knife into the bathroom where Knight was being held, and Blake stabbed him to death in the bathtub with Downer’s help,” Winter said, adding that over the next several days, Downer, Brown and Blake “cut off Knight’s legs with a power saw and disposed of them in a dumpster.

“Downer, Blake and Myrie put the remainder of Knight’s body in a large cardboard box and disposed of it in another dumpster,” he said.

Brown was sentenced to life in prison after she was convicted by a US federal jury at trial of the drug conspiracy, kidnapping and murder in aid of racketeering, and conspiracy to commit murder in aid of racketeering, Winter said.

He said Myrie pleaded guilty to kidnapping in aid of racketeering and was sentenced to 108 months in prison.

Michael Reid and Blake have also pleaded guilty to their roles in the conspiracy and are awaiting sentencing, Winter said, adding that Smith was killed in 2010.