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Thursday, April 18, 2019

Jessup prison smuggling ring: Drugs, phones and porn


Federal authorities in Maryland dismantled yet another smuggling ring of prison guards and inmates allegedly peddling heroin, cellphones and pornography-loaded flash drives behind bars — in exchange for sex and payments via PayPal and Western Union money orders.

Nineteen people were arrested Tuesday — including three prison guards — and charged with running the smuggling ring at the state’s medium-security prison in Jessup.

The crackdown at the Maryland Correctional Institute Jessup pushes to nearly 200 the number of guards, inmates and civilian accomplices indicted in prison-corruption cases across Maryland over the last four years, said Michael Zeigler, acting secretary of the state Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services.

The investigation began more than two years ago after a prisoner tipped off authorities to the smuggling ring. Maryland Correctional Institute Jessup holds about 1,100 male prisoners. A staff of about 300 prison guards and civilian employees run the grounds.

The guards allegedly were sneaking an array of contraband into the prison — fentanyl, ecstasy, synthetic marijuana, prescription pills, alcohol and tobacco — by hiding the drugs under their clothing and in their hair, federal prosecutors wrote in charging documents.

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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

They just don't learn.

Anonymous said...

This is all over MD Correctional Facilities including ECI, which is never reported. They have been doing this for years. The last 10 years have gotten worst because of the hiring practices, Leadership in HQ, Administrations at the Facilities, Promoting practices of incompetent people, poor supervision allowing / over looking Officers not abiding by regulations. DPSCS will never acknowledge these facts. They lose good people because of favoritism and rebuking Officers that attempt to do their job according to the DOC regulations. I know I have been there and retired because of these facts.

Anonymous said...

The Lunatics running the Asylum

Anonymous said...

COs need yearly polygraphs.