Henry Culvyhouse

hculvyhous@dmg.gannett.com

The Eastern Correctional Institute is the site for the largest case ever brought to a federal grand jury in the U.S. District Court of Maryland, U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein announced Wednesday.

Eighty people have been charged in the indictment with smuggling drugs, cigarettes, cellphones and pornographic DVDs inside the Westover facility for sale. Eighteen correctional officers, 35 inmates and 27 smugglers on the outside have been named in the two indictments, which were returned on Sept. 29 by the grand jury.

The smuggling ring, unlike the take over of the Baltimore City Detention Center by the Black Guerrilla Family in the late 2000s and early 2010s, was not the act of one gang, nor one man, Rosenstein said at a news conference Wednesday.

"There were various leaders and various gangs working here," Rosenstein said. "It was a conspiracy because every member of it could foresee the scale of it. ... As far as the correctional officer corruption is concerned, this was on the lowest of levels. These were entry level correctional officers operating here."

But even members of the conspiracy could see parallels to the Black Guerrilla Family smuggling ring, according to the indictment. In a communication intercepted by federal authorities, a former correctional officers accused of working as a "facilitator" — someone on the outside that delivered goods to the correctional officers to smuggle inside the facility — likened the ring to it.

"It's crazy," said the woman in the intercepted communication. "I hope it ain't nothing like, remember did you see on the news what happened down BCDC out here? Over at City Jail. Bout a year maybe 2 years ago, it was a BGF dude he was pretty much doing the same thing, the whole time like somebody listening on the conversation, somebody was telling pretty much."

READ MORE: List of those indicted in ECI smuggling ring

The details

According to the indictments, ECI is the largest state prison in Maryland, operating since 1987 in Somerset County. ECI is a medium-security prison for men built as two identical compounds (East and West) on 620 acres, and housing more than 3,300 inmates.

The East and West Compounds are further divided into Housing Units, 1 through 4 in the West and 5 through 8 in the East. The grand jury split the indictments between the East and the West compounds, with nine COs, 17 ECI inmates and 13 outside suppliers charged in connection with activities in the West side compound and nine COs, 18 ECI inmates and 14 suppliers being charged on the East side compound.

The outside suppliers would deliver contraband — most popularly Subboxone and cigarettes — to the COs who would then smuggle it inside on their persons, according to the indictment. Once inside the facility, the COs would deliver the goods to the inmates who would in turn resell it, the indictment states.

Cellphones, according to Rosenstien, fueled the ring.

"The presence of cellphones allowed for the inmates to place orders for contraband to the outside facilitators," Rosenstein said. "Some people assume prisons are like an island, where we can lock up people and they won't have contact with the outside. It doesn't work that way — you have three shifts of correctional officers coming through, you have delivery men and repair men and inmates coming in and out."

The smuggling scheme was busted open in 2013, after a correctional officer took his or her concerns to the warden, according to Rosenstein. Originally, the Somerset County State's Attorney Office received the case, but it decided to pass it over to federal prosecutors due to a lack of resources, Rosenstein said.

"Early on, we worked closely with the office and they gave us a lot of information to get this case off the ground," he said. "This case, like any case, started with a tip."

Stephen Moyer, secretary of the Maryland department of public safety and correctional services, said his department teamed up with federal investigators to look into the allegations. He said currently there are cases pending "all over the Maryland prison system."

"We're working tirelessly to root out corruption within the prison system," Moyer said. "We will find any body who is corrupt, we will prosecute you and send you to prison."

According to the indictments, although COs and other ECI employees were required to pass through security screening at the entrance to ECI, defendant COs were able to hide contraband on their persons. Further, COs took breaks during their shifts and returned to their cars to retrieve contraband.

Once the COs had the smuggled contraband inside the facility, they delivered it to: inmates in their cells; clerk’s offices, which were private offices within each housing unit where an inmate clerk worked; the officer’s dining room where officers could interact with inmate servers and kitchen workers; and pre-arranged “stash” locations like staff bathrooms, storage closets, laundry rooms and other places where contraband could be hidden and then later retrieved by inmates. COs and delivered contraband to inmates.

The affidavits filed in support of the search warrants discuss an inmate who admitted paying COs $3,000 per week to smuggle. According to the West compound indictment, another inmate said he aimed to make $50,000 before he was released.

The indictment alleges that defendant inmates who had jobs that allowed them to move throughout the housing unit and elsewhere in the prison, commonly referred to as “working men,” took orders for contraband from inmates, provided orders to corrupt.

READ MORE: ECI library an escape for prisoners

According to court documents, the conspirators rented post office boxes to send drugs and bribe payments to the COs.

The indictment alleges that COs warned inmates when the prison administration was planning cell searches so that the inmates could hide contraband or pass it to other inmates whose cells were not being searched. The COs also monitored inmates to determine if they were providing information to the prison administration about contraband smuggling. When the COs learned that inmates were providing information to the prison administration, they would allegedly try to prevent them from doing so or would alert defendant inmates so that they could retaliate against these inmates, sometimes violently.

According to the indictment, defendants used violence to obtain contraband once it was smuggled into the facility, to ensure that contraband paid for by an inmate was delivered to that inmate, and to retaliate against inmates that provided information, or attempted to provide information, to the prison administration about corrupt COs and contraband smuggling, or that otherwise interfered with their contraband trafficking activities.

For example, the West Compound indictment alleges that an inmate was stabbed at the direction of a defendant CO after the inmate filed a complaint against the CO which caused the CO to be removed from the housing unit. At the time of his removal, the CO owed several inmates contraband that he had been bribed to smuggle into ECI.

Aftermath

Each defendant faces 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 charged in the indictment covering the West Compound at ECI also face a maximum of 10 years in prison for deprivation of rights under color of law 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 initial appearances at a later date.

Gov. Larry Hogan released the following statement in response to the announcement of federal indictments of 80 defendants involved in a racketeering conspiracy at the Eastern Correctional Institution in Westover:

“The indictments announced today are a clear victory in the fight against corruption, and I want to thank all the hardworking federal and state law enforcement officers whose tireless dedication and sacrifice made it possible. This morning, I spoke with Maryland U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein and personally commended him for his work and partnership with our state investigators to successfully execute this complex operation.

“While running for office, I made it clear that the systemic corruption that had been allowed to take hold in our state prison system was unacceptable, and I promised Marylanders that our administration would combat it head on. Today, together with our federal partners, we have taken decisive action to make good on that promise.

“I hired Secretary Stephen Moyer with the directive to aggressively root out corruption in our state correctional facilities, and that is exactly what he has done. From closing the notoriously dangerous Baltimore City Men’s Detention Center to the many actions taken over the course of this investigation, our administration has been and will remain steadfastly committed to stopping this kind of illicit criminal behavior.

“I want to publicly thank U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein, the FBI and other federal authorities, Secretary Moyer and the Maryland Department of Corrections, and the Maryland State Police, all of whom worked tirelessly, and at great personal risk, to see justice done.

“Under this administration, Maryland will remain unafraid to target corruption and criminal behavior of all kinds.”

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