Pensacola-area marijuana trafficking operation laundered more than $3.5 million

Two Pensacola men and one Milton man were among the five defendants sentenced last week for their roles in a marijuana trafficking operation that laundered more than $3.5 million in cash.

The five defendants were sentenced to federal prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to distribute marijuana and conspiracy to commit money laundering, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Florida

Charles Zachariah Sindylek, 32, of Pensacola, was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison on both charges, and Andrew Paul Marcelonis, 32, of Pensacola, was sentenced to one and a half years in prison.

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Steven Ryan Michael Sholly, 31, of Milton, was sentenced to nearly five years in prison for conspiracy to distribute marijuana.

Also sentenced last week on both charges were David DelGiacco, 56, of Lake Forest, California, who received 30 days in custody of the Bureau of Prisons, and Brandon Craig Remeyer, 35, of Trabuco Canyon, California, who received a six-year prison sentence.

Three co-defendants — Sanford Eugene Johnson III and William Brett Brownell and his father, William Ezra Brownell — previously pleaded guilty and were sentenced in November.

Prosecutors said the defendants conspired to distribute more than 100 kilograms of marijuana in the Northern District of Florida between 2014 and 2017.

Johnson, William Brett Brownell, Sholly and others in the Pensacola area ordered the marijuana from Sindylek and Remeyer, who shipped packages of marijuana from California to Florida with the assistance of DelGiacco.

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Johnson, William Brett Brownell and Sholly then sold the marijuana in Florida with the assistance of Marcelonis, William Ezra Brownell and others.

More than $3.5 million in cash proceeds from the sale of marijuana was laundered through bank accounts and mailed to addresses in California, according to prosecutors.

The case resulted from an investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation, the Pensacola Police Department, the Mobile (Alabama) Police Department, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office, the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office, the Gulf Breeze Police Department and the Gulf Coast High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area program.