Man who smuggled oil into US in wine bottles to be sentenced

This undated photo provided by Department of Homeland Security/U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement shows Wolfgang Hans Langlois from his Hawaii driver’s license. Langlois, a German citizen who lives in Hawaii, faces sentencing Thursday, May 14, 2015, for smuggling safrole oil, a type of oil that's commonly used to make ecstasy. According to court documents, customs agents intercepted a shipment and found the oil, which is legal but requires special permission to import. Defense attorney William Harrison says Langlois is a chemist and wanted to create a legal substance to help his wife with breast cancer. He expects his client to receive probation when he's sentenced. (Department of Homeland Security/U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement via AP) This undated photo provided by Department of Homeland Security/U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement shows Wolfgang Hans Langlois from his Hawaii driver’s license. Langlois, a German citizen who lives in Hawaii, faces sentencing Thursday, May 14, 2015, for smuggling safrole oil, a type of oil that's commonly used to make ecstasy. According to court documents, customs agents intercepted a shipment and found the oil, which is legal but requires special permission to import. Defense attorney William Harrison says Langlois is a chemist and wanted to create a legal substance to help his wife with breast cancer. He expects his client to receive probation when he's sentenced. (Department of Homeland Security/U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement via AP)

By Associated Press May 14, 2015 3 min read

HONOLULU (AP) – A German citizen who lives in Hawaii is set to be sentenced Thursday for smuggling oil that’s commonly used to make ecstasy.

Wolfgang Hans Langlois put safrole oil in wine bottles hidden in household items he shipped from Germany to Kauai last year, according to documents filed in federal court in Honolulu. Customs agents intercepted the shipment and found the oil, which is legal but requires special permission to import.

Langlois pleaded guilty to smuggling but maintains the oil was not for ecstasy but for a legal substance he wanted to make for his wife, who has cancer.

The shipment caught the attention of agents because Langlois’ name was on a watch list for people suspected of smuggling ecstasy to Hawaii from South America in vitamin and face cream jars in 2008, according to the court papers. Langlois was never charged in that case.

In August 2014, when agents in Los Angeles intercepted the shipment from Germany, they discovered 10 wine bottles containing an “unknown yellow liquid stored inside of a wooden nightstand in a suspicious manner,” according to an affidavit by a Homeland Security Investigations special agent.