Vessel owner pleads guilty in plot to smuggle workers, drugs from Honduras to Louisiana

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A Pennsylvania man described by authorities as the lead defendant in a drug distribution and human smuggling case has pleaded guilty to federal crimes in Louisiana. Court records show that 47-year-old Carl Allison of Pittsburgh pleaded guilty Thursday in New Orleans. Sentencing was scheduled for March 28. The U.S. Justice Department said Allison faces a possible life sentence. An investigation began after a vessel owned by Allison became disabled last year in the Gulf of Mexico and was nearly capsized during a storm. U.S. Coast Guard officials found Honduran nationals and cocaine aboard the vessel, which was bound for the small fishing village of Cocodrie, Louisiana.