The aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan steams through Tokyo Bay on its way to Yokosuka Naval Base in November 2023. (Akifumi Ishikawa/Stars and Stripes)
YOKOSUKA NAVAL BASE, Japan — A sailor’s fatal fall in 2023 sparked a Navy probe that uncovered a drug distribution network aboard the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan and led to punishment for 58 sailors, according to service officials and heavily redacted court records.
The investigation resulted in six courts-martial, 24 administrative separations and 28 cases of nonjudicial punishment, Navy officials said. Court records describe a network that used the U.S. Postal Service to ship hundreds of LSD tablets to Japan that were then distributed to sailors.
The Navy acknowledged in 2023 that an unspecified number of Ronald Reagan sailors were under investigation, but the extent of that probe did not emerge until records became public and recent Navy responses.
“The investigation was comprehensive, and every Sailor identified as having been involved in misconduct was held accountable,” Ronald Reagan spokesman Lt. Cmdr. James Adams told Stars and Stripes in a recent email.
The probe began after a 22-year-old boatswain’s mate assigned to the carrier died March 13, 2023, after falling from a Yokosuka barracks. The Navy declined to name the sailor.
An autopsy found LSD in his system, and a search of the sailor’s cellphone provided Naval Criminal Investigative Service agents with additional leads, according to a defense filing. Court records don’t say what caused or contributed to his fall.
The death was “the catalyst for the broader investigation,” Adams said. “Information and evidence uncovered by NCIS during the initial death investigation led them to uncover and dismantle a network of drug possession, use, and distribution.”
NCIS formally opened its investigation on May 2, 2023. Within weeks, sailors began admitting involvement and identifying others, according to court records.
The six sailors court-martialed in the case were Seaman Apprentice Evelyn Aguilar, Seaman Brandon Dias, Seaman David Posmao, Seaman Apprentice Artur Reykhman, Seaman Allysa Riale and Seaman Angel Tucker, according to the court records.
Tucker’s appellate record provided the most detailed account of the drug ring. He received seven mailed shipments of LSD between February 2022 and May 2023, each containing between 350 and 1,000 tablets, according to the record.
Tucker, a damage control fireman, took the packages to a sailor’s off-base home and distributed some of the drugs to sailors aboard the carrier, according to court records. He also handled a package of psilocybin mushrooms in a similar manner.
He pleaded guilty to seven drug-related offenses, including distribution, exportation, conspiracy and introducing a controlled substance onto a military vessel. He was sentenced to 15 months’ confinement and a bad-conduct discharge, but the confinement was later reduced by six months for his cooperation.
Dias, another damage control fireman, admitted distributing LSD and psilocybin mushrooms to other sailors, court records show. Agents who searched his off-base home seized substances later confirmed to be LSD and psilocybin.
Most of the drug-related charges against Dias were dismissed because of speedy-trial violations, but he was convicted of obstruction of justice and sentenced to 215 days’ confinement, forfeiture of pay and a bad-conduct discharge.
Aguilar pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice. Posmao and Reykhman were convicted of drug offenses that included possession, distribution and conspiracy. Riale was convicted of distribution and conspiracy. All four received confinement.
Each of the six sailors was reduced to the rank of E-1, or seaman recruit. All but Posmao received punitive discharges.
Efforts to contact the six sailors through Naval Forces Japan and social media were not successful.
Another 52 sailors were disciplined in connection with the investigation for use of an illegal substance, said Cmdr. Amelia Umayam, a spokeswoman for Naval Air Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet.
The 28 sailors who received nonjudicial punishment were typically given 45 days’ restriction, 45 days’ extra duty, reduction in rank and forfeiture of half a month’s pay for two months, she said by email May 27.
Most of the 24 sailors who were administratively separated received other-than-honorable discharges, Umayam said.
The Ronald Reagan switched its homeport to Naval Base Kitsap in Bremerton, Wash., in spring 2024, after serving nearly a decade as flagship of the Japan-based U.S. 7th Fleet.
