80 charged in alleged racketeering conspiracy at Maryland’s

allegations of racketeering — at maryland’s largest prison. today — the u-s attorney’s office unsealed two federal indictments — which chronicle what appears to be years of criminal activity at eastern correctional institution in westover, maryland. 47 abc’s emily lampa leads our team coverage of this big story. emily — a lot of disturbing information has been revealed today. please walk us through it. david — i have the two indictments here. 72 pages of information. here’s a look at some of the key takeaways… a total of 80 people were charged. 18 of those — are corrections officers. 35 are inmates. and 27 are referred to as “facilitators” — people outside the prison system — who apparently brought drugs, cell phones, and tobacco to the corrections officers — and also allegedly paid bribes to the c-o’s to have them smuggle the contraband inside. the charges are outlined in two indictments. the reason there are two — is that the housing area of e-c-i is separated into two compounds. and the documents outline the criminal activity — which reportedly happened within the east and west compounds — separately. the indictments allege that the c-o’s accepted money — as well as sexual favors — to smuggle contraband into e-c-i. investigators claim the “going rate” for a c-o to smuggle items into the prison was 5-hundred dollars — per package — and the payments were apparently made as cash, money orders, or even through paypal — on contraband cell phones. we’re told the drugs being smuggled include — heroin, cocaine, m-d-m-a, “suboxone,” and marijuana. investigators allege that those drugs were being re-sold on the inside — for substantial profits. and continuing with our team coverage on these federal indictments. 47 abc’s lissette nunez joins live in westover — with a report outside the eastern correctional institution property. hi lissette. hey emily — as we know — 80 people were charged – 18 were correctional officers at the prison. but what’s important to note — e-c-i is already dealing with a shortage of employees. particularly correctional officers. this past august – 47 abc brought you a story about a career fair — called operation hire on the eastern shore. e-c-i participated in this effort to fill 60 job openings. of those positions — they were looking to employ 40 correctional officers. at the press conference in baltimore today — 47 abc asked officials if the need for new corrections officers was in any way tied to the investigation. but public safety secretary stephen moyer clarified — there was already a need across the state — the prison system is some 7-hundred correctional officers short. and we know all 18 correction officers were placed on administrative leave without pay. officials at the press conference say they are thoroughly screening all potential new hires — including using polygraph testing. for more on the open positions at e-c-i — and how to apply — we have the story linked to the special report banner on our website. emily? at a press conference earlier this afternoon — in baltimore — the maryland department of public safety and correctional services secretary stephen moyer said this 3-year investigation began with a tip from a corrections officer. the indictments — and arrest warrants were issued thursday — last week. but they were sealed at that time… it wasn’t until today — that the documents were made public. we asked a spokesperson in the u-s attorney’s office why that was — and she wouldn’t give us an answer. arrests were conducted over the past week — and a number were still being carried out this morning — even as preparations were being made for this afternoon’s press conference. 47 abc’s julian sadur was there for the question and answer session – with top investigators and state officials. julian? emily the big question here was how was this allowed to happen? how were correctional officers able to sneak into the prison with this contraband deliver it to prisoners and then subsequently allow those prisoners to distribute the contraband around the prison. as we heard to today the answer is not as simple as the question. officials saying that money and sexual favors were key reason why correctional officers decided to forgo their duty to the public and participate in this contraband operation. usattorney rod rosenstein using the example that suboxone strips – a schedule 3 narcotic could be bought outside the walls for three dollars – but then sold inside the prison for 50 dollars. a profit of more than 1000 percent. we also heard that correctional officers would alert inmates when searches were going to be conducted and even ordered inmates to use violence against other inmates who were ready to snitch on the operation. now as far as how these inmates were able to move freely – it was part of their job duties there at the pros they gain them actually through good behavior, they apply in some cases if they work in some of our maryland correctional enterprises plans they actually are a paid salary “so we can assume that these inmates were in good standing” at some point in time but once we learned they were involved in this type of behavior that’s when my intelligence and investigative team gets involved now we were also able to talk to the union president patric moran. who says the actions of these officers are not indicative of the workforce there as a whole the fact that an officer brought this to the floor and to managements attention is just a reflection the fact that the vast majority of , 99.98 percent of the officers out there are doing the right thing now i’ll have much more from this press conference at 10 and 11 but for now let’s send it back to you emily. thank you so much, julian… each defendant listed in these indictments face a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for the racketeering conspiracy, and for conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute drugs. two correctional officers — and two inmates — also face an additional 10 years in prison for allegedly participating in the stabbing of two inmates in separate incidents. initial appearances for the correctional officers and facilitators arrested today — are being held in u-s district court in baltimore. the inmates charged in the indictments will have their initial appearances at a later date. if you would like to take a look at the list of people named in the indictments — or read the details for yourself. we have the full documents online. david. thank you emily – if there is any detail you might have missed from our team coverage of this story — it will all be on our website — 47 abc dot com. for now — let’s turn to the weather — some sun is expected