ECI indictments point out 3 big players in drug ring

Although no one person can be claimed as the quote ring leader in the alleged drug smuggling operation, it appears three inmates may have played major roles in facilitating the movement of drugs into the prison and bribing correctional officers to bring it in.

Inmates Joseph Branch a.k.a. Sandtown, inmate Zachary Martin a.k.a. Dice and inmate Troy Johnson. .

These three managed to allegedly work with at least 18 different people to bring in pounds of contraband.  This allegedly resulting in over hundreds of thousands of dollars illegally changing hands through money orders, such as pay pal. 

The inmate that seemed to have the longest reach appears to be Dice,  who was housed in the East Compound of ECI.

According to federal documents Dice’s operation involved at least three correctional officers and six people on the outside. He allegedly got so big that documents say he called ECI “his jail” and told a friend it only took him a couple months to lock the whole prison down.

On the other side of the prison, the west Compound it appears Sandtown was a big player. Although Sandtown didn’t appear to be as big as Dice, he may have had more access to inmates.  Documents showing he used his job as a clerk, which gave him free range to other places of the prison, to allegedly freely move contraband to those in need.

Sandtown worked with at least two CO’s and two other inmates and several on the outside, but it seems his main accomplice was CO Kimberly Rayfield, whom he had personal relationship with. Rayfield would smuggle in contraband such as pornographic material and synthentic weed for him. She would also allegedly manage his finances on the outside. 

In return Sandtown helped his alleged lover pay off her credit card bills, sometimes as much as $2,000.

The third inmate Troy Johnson was like Sandtown in that he worked with several people but relied on one person to mainly facilitate his operations. 

Documents show that Johnson even made calls to people he knew were going to be locked up and asked them to smuggle in contraband Telling one person “to load up five or six hundred suboxone strips” into his body before he came to ECI because people would quote sell their souls for it.