A 40-year-old Portland man who smuggled about $2.5 million worth of Oregon-grown marijuana out of state in large hand-built crates was sentenced Monday to nearly five years in a federal prison camp.

Kyle Cerkoney and two friends shipped more than 2,000 pounds of marijuana across the country to places including New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Georgia, Texas, Arkansas, Illinois and Minnesota, according to federal prosecutor Julia E. Jarrett.

He then laundered the proceeds of the marijuana operation through fake business bank accounts to try to disguise the crime, Jarrett said.

Cerkoney and his friends concealed their shipments of pot and THC extract in large hand-built crates. They created false cargo bills and flew to the destination cities to receive the shipments and distribute the drugs for sale, according to Jarrett.

When commercial freight companies started to reject or limit their freight shipments due to suspicions or seizures, Cerkoney started using smaller private freight transport businesses, according to the prosecutor.

To make the drug proceeds appear as legitimate business revenue, bank deposits would be made in amounts less than $10,000 at a time in accounts for fake companies created called Transport 1 Logistics and PDX Payments Solutions, Jarrett wrote in a sentencing memo.

Cerkoney pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute 1,000 kilograms or more of marijuana and conspiracy to launder money.

U.S. District Judge Michael H. Simon granted the sentence recommended by both the prosecutor and Cerkoney’s defense lawyer: four years and nine months at the federal prison camp in Sheridan, a minimum-security facility.

“Defendant knew what he was doing was both illegal and wrong. … He took great care to cover up his criminal activity and avoid law enforcement scrutiny,” Jarrett wrote to the court.

Under the plea agreement, Cerkoney agreed to forfeit $570,278, as well as a Porsche 911 GT3, two Rolex watches, a diamond necklace, seven watches seized from his home and a Diamondback Model DB-15 rifle.

Defense lawyer Jeffrey A. Turnoy described Cerkoney as the “middleman” in the operation.

“He was not a manufacturer or producer of the marijuana,” Turnoy wrote to the court.

A co-defendant in the conspiracy, Jeremiah Cruz, 40, set up the deals, where the product was to be shipped and how much money was to be made off the transactions, while Cerkoney handled the shipping logistics, according to Turnoy.

Cruz was sentenced in February to one year and nine months in prison and co-defendant Robert Dawe, 40, was sentenced in April to two years and nine months in prison. When the operation’s warehouse in Vancouver closed down, Dawe used his home to store marijuana for distribution, according to court records.

Cerkoney stood before the judge and assured him that he’s learned his lesson.

“It was all my fault,” he said. “My fault, my choice, my decision.”

He shared that after his arrest, he suffered a severe case of COVID-19, was on a ventilator and hospitalized in intensive care for about two weeks. Nearly losing his life made him realize that he had to drastically alter it and use his abilities for good, he said.

“I believe this had to happen to show me I’m capable of so much more,” he said.

He said he’s now working as a chief operating officer for a performance car dealership in northeast Portland called Aetherium Automotive. He’s active in his church and has co-founded a nonprofit group called “Field of Prayers” to provide spiritual guidance and donations to veterans.

“I have found my passion again. I have found my passion for good honest work and helping others in the community,” he said. Once he serves his sentence, he said he looks forward to building on his successes.

“I’m not my past. I’ve learned from it,” he said. “I’ve used it as my fuel to keep moving forward.”

The judge gave Cerkoney until Dec. 1 to voluntarily surrender to start serving the prison camp term.

The massive quantity of marijuana produced in Oregon since legalization in 2014, coupled with insufficient resources to monitor compliance and track the sale of surplus on the illegal market, continues to encourage prolific trafficking across state borders, according to a June report from the Oregon-Idaho High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area.

In 2014, Oregon became the third state in the nation to allow the possession and sale of cannabis for recreational rather than strictly medical use. According to a recent analysis of national highway interdiction data, marijuana originating in Oregon is frequently seized in other states, with a significant amount destined to the illegal market in the eastern half of the United States, according to the report.