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Feds: Correction Officers Smuggled Weed, Opioid Medication To Rikers Detainees In Exchange For Bribes
By
Jake Offenhartz
Published Jan 14, 2020
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(JB Nicholas / Gothamist)
By
Jake Offenhartz
Published Jan 14, 2020
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Half a dozen New York City corrections officers were charged on Tuesday for allegedly sneaking marijuana, opioid medication, and K2 to detainees on Rikers Island.
A joint investigation conducted by the FBI and the NYC Department of Investigation found that the jail guards allegedly received thousands of dollars in bribes from incarcerated men in exchange for smuggling the contraband past security. Five detainees and seven other intermediaries were also charged Tuesday.
"The smuggling of contraband into our jails is a common Hollywood storyline, but while there’s an element a [sic] fiction in many a screenplay, there’s nothing fake about this real-life threat to our correctional facilities," said FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge William Sweeney.
Investigators said they reviewed financial records on CashApp, and conducted video and phone surveillance, where they overheard detainees discussing the scheme: “'I’m trying to get, um, four ‘Oakland Raider jerseys’ [code for marijuana]...’Got Pink Panties’ [code for correction officer] on the line right now...You just gotta make it to the ‘Jungle’ [code for Brooklyn] to drop it off to them and, more or less, we lit from there.”
In addition to marijuana and synthetic weed, the guards allegedly smuggled Suboxone, a combination of buprenorphine and naloxon used as treatment for opioid addiction. As Gothamist reported this past summer, New York state prisons do not fully offer medication-assisted treatment, meaning that some Rikers Island detainees are forced to stop taking prescriptions for heroin addiction in order to transfer to a prison drug treatment program. Instead, some choose to remain locked up at Rikers, where they can continue taking medication for heroin addiction.
The correction officers named in the indictment are Darrington James, Patrick Legerme, Aldrin Livingston, Michael Murray, Angel Rodriguez and Christopher Walker.
The defendants are scheduled to be arraigned in federal court on Tuesday afternoon.
A spokesperson for the Department of Correction did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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Jake Offenhartz
Jake Offenhartz is a former Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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