Back in December of 2012, we reported on Diocenyr Ribamar Barbosa-Santos, an airline mechanic, who fantasized to an undercover agent about his plans to buy seven airplanes from China to sell to Iran once he secured a $135 million letter of credit to finance the purchase of the aircraft. The likelihood that the Brazilian immigrant — whose sole qualification in the airplane brokering business was that he fixed airplanes — could get the financing and move the planes from China to Iran was about as likely, I said, as his convincing the U.S. Park Service to dismantle Mount Rushmore and ship it, rock by rock, to Tehran. Nevertheless, he was charged in a criminal complaint with brokering the sale of these aircraft to Iran, which is roughly equivalent to charging a guy with terrorism after he confesses to plans to explode a thermonuclear device made entirely of Lego bricks and Play-Do.

Mr. Barbosa-Santos has now tasted the sting of federal justice for his wild imagination and has been sentenced to two years in jail. Amazingly, this sentence was imposed even though the prosecutor recommended probation, apparently also agreeing that the defendant was mostly guilty of being stupid.

What’s interesting was why U.S. District Court Judge Daniel T.K. Hurley decided to ignore the prosecutor and throw the book at Barbosa-Santos:

Hurley called Barbosa-Santos “the salt of the earth” and regretted refuting both attorneys. But he said Americans live with a false sense of security about the dangers of the world.

Of the Iranian government, he said, “these are the people that regard the U.S. as the great Satan.”

And we certainly don’t want people who think we are the great Satan flying around imaginary planes financed with imaginary letters of credit. Who knows what catastrophic harm that could bring?

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