[tssva]

Allowing someone to err and redeem themselves doesn't mean letting the erring go unpunished but to mitigate the punishment to reflect the redemption. This is exactly what happened in this case. His later positive contributions were considered when determining his punishment and his sentence was much lighter than would generally be given for the crimes committed.

[Quarrelsome]

its not the sentence that's the problem, its the build up to the sentence and the heavy-handed arm twisting.

The outcome is just going to be that people won't travel to the US for these sorts of meet ups because they're treated as if they were violent drug barons (sentencing aside).