A U.S. man has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for trying to smuggle hundreds of pounds of drugs onto Vancouver Island from Port Angeles, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced last week.
John Michael Sherwood, 69, was sentenced after trying to bring more than 300 pounds of methamphetamine and two pounds of fentanyl powder to Vancouver Island onboard an inflatable raft and jet ski in 2021.
He was convicted of three charges: Conspiracy to distribute controlled substances, possession of controlled substances with intent to distribute, and conspiracy to commit international money laundering.
“What you did came across as a mad man desperate for money, willing to do anything,” said sentencing judge Richard A. Jones. “At the end of the day what you were doing would cause tremendous harm to thousands of individuals.”
Sherwood was caught after a family on a beach near Port Angeles, Washington, found a partially submerged duffel bag on April 7, 2021.
The family called the police, and inside the bag officers found more than 50 pounds of meth and two pounds of fentanyl powder. Around the same time, another nearby beachcomber found a partially submerged and deflated Zodiac-style raft and told police they saw a U-haul van coming and going from the beach.
Then, on April 11, 2021, a third beach walker told police they found seven more duffel bags hidden under a bridge nearby. Inside these bags police found 252 pounds of methamphetamine. The estimated wholesale value of all the drugs in Canada was about $1.5 million, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Plans to smuggle ‘huge quantities of drugs into Canada’
FBI investigators were able to trace the duffel bags to a Walmart and found Sherwood used his debit card to purchase the bags, with the transactions caught on surveillance cameras.
Investigators say they also linked U-Haul rental records, storage locker records, and motel registration connected to his smuggling attempt.
“Phone records revealed his communication with a coconspirator in Canada about the attempt to smuggle the drugs into Canada via the Strait of Juan de Fuca,” said the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Overall, Sherwood had brought roughly 300 pounds of methamphetamine to the Pacific Northwest from southern California.
This year’s conviction actually marks the second time Sherwood was convicted for these crimes in trial. He was previously convicted in 2024 but the case team “learned of and disclosed alleged misconduct on the part of a government witness, and the matter was set for a new trial in front of a different judge,” says the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Police from all three levels of the U.S. government, including the FBI, Homeland Security Investigation, the U.S. Border Patrol and the U.S. Coast Guard – as well as the RCMP – contributed to the investigation.
“A family’s shocking discovery of drugs at the beach exemplified the brazenness of Mr. Sherwood’s multiple plans to smuggle huge quantities of drugs into Canada, part of a career of criminality spanning state lines, international borders, and several decades,” said W. Mike Herrington, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Seattle field office.
“He was involved in money laundering, perjury, and plotting against cooperating defendants in a series of attempts to cover up his crimes,” said Herrington.
Neil Floyd, First Assistant U.S. Attorney, says Sherwood’s 15-year sentence is due to his history of “persistent and entrenched criminal behavior.”
Floyd says that over the past five decades, Sherwood had been convicted of five federal felonies.
“The eight large duffel bags of methamphetamine found on the beach near Port Angeles are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to this defendant’s drug smuggling,” he said. “Evidence uncovered in the case show he made multiple drug runs to the Washington/British Columbia border to connect with his coconspirator in Canada.”
READ MORE: