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Written by: A. Smith
Published July 11, 2025 @ 10:11 AM ET
FULTON COUNTY, Ga. – A former Customs and Border Protection officer has been sentenced to 20 years in federal prison for smuggling cocaine through Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Ivan Van Beverhoudt was arrested on Jan. 10, 2020, after arriving on a flight from St. Thomas with 16 bricks of cocaine in his carry-on luggage, authorities said.
Prosecutors said Van Beverhoudt traveled in his official capacity that day and carried his CBP-issued firearm, allowing him to bypass TSA screening in St. Thomas.
When he landed in Atlanta, a K-9 trained by the same agency he worked for alerted authorities to the drugs in his bags.
Van Beverhoudt was convicted in February and sentenced on Tuesday.
“Van Beverhoudt betrayed his badge by committing one of the very crimes he was entrusted to prevent—smuggling dangerous drugs into our country,” U.S. Attorney Theodore S. Hertzberg said. “Our office and its agency partners will hold accountable any law enforcement officer who abuses his authority for criminal ends, and Van Beverhoudt’s twenty-year sentence demonstrates that such abuse will be met with severe consequences.”