ECI indictments show racketeering operation began in 2013
Arrests came Wednesday as federal indictments were handed down for 80 people believed to have participated in bringing in heroine, suboxone, synthetic marijuana, cell phones and more to Eastern Correctional Institution in Westover, Md.
The indictments explain how 18 correctional officers, dozens of inmates and those on the outside helped facilitate what United States attorney Rod Rosenstein called a massive smuggling, money laundering, and drug selling operation. Rosentein also remaking that the 80 people indicted marks the largest case in the US District Court for the District of Maryland.
According to the indictment the operation began in 2013 with a tip from a corrections officer.
Investigators say the CO’s had been taking bribes in the form of money and sexual favors to smuggle contraband into the prison. Prisoners who had special work privileges which allowed them to move about the prison would take the contraband and distribute it. Smuggled in burner phones allegedly helped inmates organize these activities.
“It was the cellphones, the ability of the inmates to contact the facilitators outside to stay in contact with corrections officers who were participating in the conspiracy. Those cellphones fueled the operation of this criminal enterprise,” Rosenstein said.
The question though, how did they manage to pull this off. Rosenstein said upper management at the prison did not participate in the operation Instead it was the greed that led these officers down the wrong path.
“What causes it is the financial incentives that the correctional officers face by virtue of the large profits that can be earn through smuggling at these facilities,” Rosenstein said.
According to the indictments a prisoner admitted to paying a correctional officer roughly $3,000 a week to smuggle in drugs.
Rosenstein said profits were high because of the difference between street price and the going rate in prison. He used the example of suboxone strip, a popular drug in the prison that could be purchased for $3 a strip on the street, however in prison was sold for up to $50, over a 1000 percent profit.
But how did this go unnoticed.
Rosenstein said correctional officerss would alert prisoners of searches so they could hide contraband and even used violence as a means to make sure no one spoke out.
“Perhaps the most shocking allegation in the indictment that a correctional officer arranged for an inmate to be attacked by other inmates because the inmate was feared to have cooperated – the correctional officer arranged for another inmate to attack and stab that first inmate,” Rosenstein said.
Ultimately though officials said it was a involved correctional officer that was not involved in the ring thatt brought this scandal to light, first alerting the warden, who in turn sent word up the chain. It’s for that reason that Patrick Moran president of the union that represents correctional officers that work in the state said these actions are not indicative of the workforce as whole.
“The fact that an officer brought this to the floor and to managements attention is just a reflection to the fact that the vast majority, 99.98 percent of the officers are out there doing the right thing,” Moran said.
So what is being done to ensure this wont happen again officials said that the prison task force has recommended using new technology, more drug screenings and enhanced supervision of officers. Statewide they have also already begun polygraph testing all correctional officer applicants to ensure only the best get in.
As for anyone else who may be conducting similar operations, Secretary Stephen T. Moyer of the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services had this message.
“Make no mistake about it , anybody who is corrupt we will find you and with our law enforcement officers we will prosecute you and we will send you to prison,” Moyer said.
Moyer said the the correctional officers indicted are on unpaid level pending the outcome of their cases.
