A 90-year-old Indiana man who served as a cocaine courier for a Mexican drug cartel has been sentenced to three years in federal prison.

Leo Sharp, a decorated World War II veteran, turned 90 on Wednesday — the day of his sentencing in U.S. District Court in Detroit. Afterward, Sharp called the prison term a "death sentence."

Sharp was pulled over by police in October 2011 for erratic driving on an interstate highway in Michigan with 104 bricks of cocaine in his truck. Prosecutors said he hauled 1,250 kg of cocaine into Michigan from the southwest U.S. on a half-dozen trips from February 2010 until his arrest, earning $1,000 per kilogram.