10-year sentence for Elgin man in $4 millon I-90 pot bust
A 46-year-old Elgin man was sentenced to 10 years in prison Thursday after pleading guilty to driving a van earlier this year containing $4 million worth of high-grade marijuana.
Xaiana Thammavong, of the 200 block of South Liberty Street, pleaded guilty to possession of cannabis with intent to deliver.
He also pleaded guilty to 2008 charges of failure to register as a sex offender and got an additional 3-year term.
Thammavong must serve the sentences one after the other because he committed the drug offense while he was out on bond for the 2008 case, prosecutors said. He also must pay a fine of $27,966.
“We feel that was an appropriate disposition of the case. We’re glad he stepped up and admitted his guilt,” Assistant State’s Attorney Kelly Orland said.
As part of the plea agreement, which was accepted by Kane County Judge Karen Simpson, more serious charges of cannabis trafficking, which carried a top prison term of 60 years, were dismissed, along with a 2007 case in which Thammavong was charged with assault and disorderly conduct, both misdemeanors.
Thammavong will get credit for about six months in jail and can have his sentenced halved if he behaves himself in prison.
On March 12, authorities arrested Thammavong and another woman after pulling over a van on Interstate 90 near Hampshire because it was only going 35 mph.
After seeing Thammavong and Xom Vongsaly, 59, of Fresno, Calif., switch seats, authorities searched the van and found 230 pounds of high-quality marijuana that had an estimated street value of $4 million.
Vongsaly also faced a lengthy prison term, but prosecutors last week dismissed the charges against her and she was released from the Kane County jail.
Orland, who also was the prosecutor for Vongsaly’s case, declined to comment on why the charges were dismissed.
Vongsaly’s defense attorney, Assistant Public Defender Jacqueline Leder, could not immediately be reached for comment Thursday.
Leder did file court papers seeking to quash Vongsaly’s arrest and have any evidence from the search disallowed in court.
“Although a police officer may stop a person for investigative reason when the officer reasonably infers that the person is committing, is about to commit, or has committed an offense, the officer must be able to articulate facts leading to something more than an inchoate and unparticularized hunch,” Leder wrote.
But the motion arguing that police lacked probable cause never made it to a hearing before Simpson.