Story highlights The contracted prisoner-transport officer claimed to be a federal agent

He also repeatedly bragged of assaulting other female prisoners

(CNN) A prisoner-transport officer faces several charges, including for sexual assault, after three female inmates said he assaulted them while taking them to jails in Arizona and New Mexico, federal officials said.

Eric Scott Kindley was arrested in Stockton, California, on Thursday as part of an ongoing investigation led by the FBI's Phoenix Division, according to a statement from the US Department of Justice.

Kindley, 49, operates Special Operations Group 6, a company that works with local jails to transport inmates who were arrested on out-of-state warrants.

According to the probable cause affidavit, Kindley would take the women to remote locations and sexually assault them while he threatened them with a gun and bragged about assaulting other female inmates. He also claimed he was a federal agent and told the women that no one would believe them if they reported him.

On January 26, 2017, Kindley transported a female inmate from California to Arizona. After she was booked into the jail, the complaint says, she told officials that Kindley had raped her, taken pictures of her on his phone and made her sleep by him in the back of the transport van.

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