Police confiscated this 9 mm ‘ghost gun’ when they arrested Rayshaun Ducos on Jan. 30, 2023, in Honolulu in connection with the death of a Marine. (U.S. Department of Justice)
A Honolulu man was sentenced to 12 years in federal court Thursday for illegal drug dealing linked to the death of a Hawaii-based Marine.
Rayshaun Ducos, 27, pleaded guilty Dec. 11 to possessing cocaine with intent to distribute and possessing firearms to further drug trafficking, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a news release Thursday.
He was sentenced in Honolulu by U.S. District Senior Judge J. Michael Seabright.
As part of his guilty plea, Ducos admitted he had sold cocaine to Adell Anderson Jr., 25, who fatally overdosed on Jan. 23, 2023.
Anderson, a native of Fresno County, Calif., joined the Marine Corps in 2019 and was stationed at Marine Corps Base Hawaii at the time of his death.
Anderson met Ducos outside his Waikiki Beach apartment on the evening of Jan. 22, 2023, where he paid $500 for cocaine, according to the plea agreement.
Anderson returned home to the windward side of Oahu, where within hours of snorting cocaine he began convulsing, struggled to breathe and became unresponsive.
He was pronounced dead at the Castle Medical Center Emergency Room in Kailua.
The Honolulu Medical Examiner concluded Anderson died of “cocaine toxicity,” the plea agreement states.
“Ducos also admitted that, just days after the Marine’s death, as law enforcement attempted to execute a federal search warrant at his Waikiki residence, he flushed cocaine down the toilet in an attempt to obstruct the investigation,” the news release states.
Police confiscated two homemade “ghost guns” at the time of Ducos’ arrest, according to the Justice Department release.
He admitted in the plea that he used the 9 mm and 5.56 mm pistols in connection with trafficking cocaine, according to the department. Police also found about 300 rounds of ammunition and $30,000 in cash.
In court, Seabright said he was imposing a jail term at the higher end of the sentencing guidelines because of Anderson’s death, the news release states.
“A young man is dead because of Mr. Ducos’s actions,” said acting U.S. Attorney Ken Sorenson in the news release.
“Selling drugs endangers lives,” he said. “Doing so while armed makes an already deadly trade even more dangerous and puts the general public at significant risk from the violence that is endemic to the illegal drug trade.”
