A Vancouver businessman was sentenced to nine years in prison by a US court for selling thousands of encrypted smartphones to international drug cartels and other criminals.
On Tuesday, Vincent Ramos, the owner of communications company Phantom Secure in Canada, received a nine-year prison sentence and was ordered to forfeit $80 million in profits for knowingly aiding global drug traffickers such as the Sinaloa drug cartel with “uncrackable” Blackberry devices.
Prior to Ramos’ May 28 conviction, Owen Hanson, a customer of Phantom Secure, utilized six smartphones from the company to carry out the trafficking of over a ton of cocaine from Mexico to the US, and then to Canada and Australia. Hanson, who was a former USC college football player, received a 21-year prison sentence in 2017.