A Valparaiso man has been sentenced to more than three years in federal prison after pleading guilty to two drug counts, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

According to a statement released by the IRS on Thursday, Jeremy Robinson, 37, was indicted in May by a federal grand jury on four felony drug trafficking violations. He subsequently pleaded guilty to one count of interstate transportation in aid of a racketeering enterprise and to one count of aiding and abetting and was sentenced on Thursday in South Bend to 41 months in prison.

An excerpt from Robinson’s plea agreement: “I hereby acknowledge that in March of 2007 I willfully caused another person to travel from Valparaiso, Ind., to Dallas, Texas, in order to pick up a load of marijuana that was to be driven back here to Northern Indiana. I knew the purpose of that individual’s travel was to pick up some marijuana. Once that individual arrived in Texas he did in fact pick up a load of marijuana and it was placed in the back of a car I had rented for the purpose of picking up the marijuana. This vehicle was stopped on March 20, 2007, in Texas, and approximately 90 pounds of marijuana seized by police.”

Robinson was connected to the driver of the car through Robinson’s cousin, Randy Lipscomb, who was sentenced in January to 121 months in prison, and through Cesar Serrano, sentenced in March to 108 months in prison, the IRS said. Lipscomb and Serrano were involved in a joint effort to transport marijuana from places like Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico to Indiana, the IRS said.

“Court records show that Robinson also provided considerable assistance to his cousin Randy Lipscomb’s large-scale drug operation by allowing Lipscomb to use his Valparaiso tattoo shop as a shipment destination for packages of marijuana (that totaled at least 100 but less than 400 kilograms),” the IRS said.

Robinson is scheduled to self-surrender on Dec. 10 and it will be recommended that he be incarcerated in a facility close to his family in Valparaiso, the IRS said.

The case was investigated by the IRS, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, and the Michigan City Police Department.

Posted 10/16/2009