RAF LAKENHEATH — A 48th Fighter Wing airman was sentenced to 15 months’ confinement, a bad-conduct discharge and a demotion to E-1 on Monday during a one-day court-martial for the use and distribution of illegal drugs.
Airman 1st Class Chad M. Sukov, from the 48th Equipment Maintenance Squadron, will serve a year in confinement as part of a pretrial agreement.
Sukov, a former semi-pro football player for the British American Football League’s MCP Ipswich Cardinals team, pleaded guilty to using and distributing Ecstasy and marijuana and taking cocaine between February 2006 and April 2007, according to court testimony.
Sukov was brought in for questioning after authorities said he supplied an Air Force undercover agent with 198 Ecstasy pills.
Sukov said he received no money for the pills, making the delivery on behalf of a local drug supplier known as “Nobi,” according to court testimony.
He was apprehended last September was part of a sting operation by Air Force investigators that netted 10 airmen. So far, Sukov is the sixth airman to be tried in a court-martial.
In April, Airman Basic Quinticello Townsend, who is in Sukov’s squadron, received seven months’ confinement and a bad-conduct discharge for using marijuana, cocaine and Ecstasy, according to base officials.
Sukov supplied Townsend with Ecstasy pills at 10 British pounds each many times, Sukov said while being questioned by Col. Gordon Hammock, a military judge. He also confessed to ingesting cocaine about five or six times through a straw and a rolled-up U.S. dollar bill.
“I snorted it. I got a head rush and my nose got numb,” said a cool and confident Sukov.
In an attempt to sway the judge, Sukov gave an unsworn statement and apologized for his actions.
“What I did was wrong and I knew it was wrong,” he said. “I regret doing drugs. I was being selfish. … I have learned from my mistakes.”
Sukov faced a maximum punishment of a dishonorable discharge, 42 years’ confinement, reduction to E-1, forfeiture of all pay and an undisclosed fine, according to court testimony.
