Student recruiter sentenced

A former high school student from Chula Vista was sentenced Monday to 46 months in federal prison for getting other students to bring in drugs from Mexico and smuggling two people for financial gain.

Phillip Junior Webb, 20, appeared in a tan prison uniform before U.S. District Court Judge Michael Anello, who described the case as “very serious, aggravated case.”

Assistant U.S. Attorney Sherri Hobson told the judge Webb recruited other students at Castle Park High School in Chula Vista to strap drugs onto their bodies and cross the border. She said some students were caught and later pleaded guilty in state court, apparently as juveniles.

Hobson asked for five years, but also said her office could have sought a 10-year sentence. She said a 5-year sentence would “send a message” to the community.

“We cannot allow drug cartels to cavalierly recruit our youth to smuggle potent methamphetamine and fentanyl drugs into our nation, thereby endangering our teens and contributing to our country’s addiction crisis,” said U.S. Attorney Robert Brewer, Jr., in a statement afterwards.

“We will stop this exploitation by bringing the full power of the justice system down on the recruiters who exploit these kids,” said Brewer.

The U.S. Attorney described prosecutor Hobson as “a force of nature,” saying she was inspired by the Webb case to “help spearhead an ambitious juvenile smuggling prevention program.” Brewer said she worked in collaboration with the Drug Enforcement Administration, Homeland Security, Customs and Border Protection and other agencies to make presentations at schools.

Brewer said a multi-agency prevention team made scores of presentations which have reached 9,250 students, 680 parents, and hundreds of others.

“Violent Mexican cartels are making money by exploiting children in the United States and Mexico,” said Karen Flowers, DEA Special Agent in charge. “Our children, naive to the dangers, are promised money in exchange for allowing cartel members to strap drugs on their bodies in the back alleys of Tijuana.”

“What these children aren’t told is that these drugs are deadly and they are putting themselves at risk to be physically exploited or even killed,” said Flowers. “Phillip Webb coerced children with the lure of easy money and the Hollywood notion of a glamorized life of crime.”

“His sentencing makes it clear that we will not stand by and let profiteers damage our children,” said Flowers.

Sentencing documents from the U.S. Attorney’s office said Webb recruited five students from Castle Park High to smuggle drugs into the U.S. One student said he was asked by a Chula Vista High School friend to smuggle drugs for Webb. That student said he felt threatened to do it.

Webb paid the juveniles in cash afterwards, according to court records. Webb delivered cash to one student in the bathroom at Castle Park High in 2017. Several said they had smuggled drugs for Webb before.

At the time, Webb was a student at the MAAC Community Charter School in Chula Vista, but no one else from there was involved. He used his girlfriend’s car which was registered in Chula Vista. Court documents say he crossed the border 20 times between March 22 and May 4, 2018, and he was the only driver.

“Today’s sentencing of Webb is an example of justrice brought to an individual conspiring to exploit juveniles for their own financial gain,” said Timothy Tubbs, Acting special agent in charge of Homeland Security investigations in San Diego.

Webb’s attorney, Anthony Solare, asked for the 3 year, 10 sentence he received, citing his age of 18 at the time. Webb has been in federal custody since May, 2018, and will receive credit for that time.

Webb pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute controlled substances from July to Nov., 2017, in which methamphetamine and fentanyl were seized after the students were arrested. Webb also pleaded guilty to alien smuggling for financial gain when two undocumented people were found in his car trunk on May 4, 2018, at 4:03 a.m.

Anello ordered that a second 46-month sentence run concurrent to the other one. He ordered him to pay a $200 penalty assessment fee.