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R22 smuggler jailed for 15 months

USA: The former Miami resident who pled guilty last month to smuggling over 300 tonnes of the illegal HCFC refrigerant R22 has been jailed for 15 months.

Jorge Murrillo, 69, had previously admitted to conspiring to purchase quantities of R22, worth more than $1.5m, from a Chinese manufacturer and then import them into South Florida ports to sell on the black market.

At no point did he or his companies or associates hold unexpended consumption allowances that would have allowed the legal importation of R22.

In addition to his prison term, Murrillo was sentenced to one year of supervised release and ordered to pay $5,794.84 in restitution to Homeland Security Investigations for costs associated with storing the illegal merchandise. 

Murrillo’s co-defendant, Norberto Guada, was previously convicted in 2012 of illegally importing R22 and served a federal prison sentence.

Related stories:

US man faces 5-years prison for R22 smuggling11 August 2022
USA: A 69-year-old man faces up to five years in prison after pleading guilty to smuggling approximately 309,536kg of the illegal HCFC refrigerant R22 into the United States from China. Read more…

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