Story ID: 
Sentences Handed Down for Errant Pilots
By: Gordon Gilbert
Caption: Former Flight Options pilot Franklin Rodriguez last month was sentenced to 17.5 years in prison after pleading guilty last May to smuggling drugs into the 
Word Count: 168
Former Flight Options pilot Franklin Rodriguez last month was sentenced to 17.5 years in prison after pleading guilty last May to smuggling drugs into the U.S. While in the Air National Guard he and loadmaster John Fong smuggled some 200,000 Ecstasy pills–worth an estimated $11.6 million on the street–into the U.S. after conducting a military C-5 Galaxy mission from Germany to Stewart Airport in Newburgh, N.Y. The two men admitted to law enforcement officers that they had transported Ecstasy on previous military flights. Fong was still awaiting sentencing at press time. Separately, Jeffrey Borer, former owner of defunct charter operator XtraJet, was sentenced last month to six months of home detention for secretly videotaping pop star Michael Jackson and his attorney while flying aboard a chartered Gulfstream IISP on Nov. 20, 2003. Borer must also serve three years probation, pay a $10,000 fine and perform 150 hours of community service. Borer co-defendant Arvel Reeves, who owned maintenance company Executive Aviation, in July was ordered to serve eight months in prison.