Randy Lanier along with Ben Kramer, owner of Apache boats, ran a multi million dollar drugs empire between 1982 and 1986 when the arrest took place. Kramer was the great-nephew and one of the putative heirs of the top boss of the U.S. crime syndicate, Meyer Lansky.

He was convicted of importing and distributing over 300 tons of Colombian marijuana and was due to be sentenced when he disappeared. He was arrested eight months later in Puerto Rico. Lanier had also cut a deal after his arrest for conspiracy to distribute pot, but at the last minute refused to testify against Jack Kramer, father of Ben.

Randy Lanier received a life without parole sentence on 4 October 1988 under the newly enacted RICO laws along with his partner Ben Kramer for their lack of cooperation. The Whittington brothers who were also involved received a lighter sentence. Lanier filed an appeal based on the fact that later RICO convictions were not nearly as lengthy, but lost the appeal. He has remained in Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary since imprisonment. His subsequent appeals have all been denied. After suspicion of a planned escape in 1996, he spent three years in solitary confinement.

Lanier's wife, Maria De La Luz Maggi-Lanier, was sentenced on April 30, 1993 to nine years in prison for money laundering. She pleaded guilty in September the year previously to conspiracy and obstruction.

Lanier nowadays spends most of his time working out, playing chess in the maximum security unit and corresponds to his pen pals.