Drugs, sex and collusion behind bars in Maryland, indictment says
Laura J. Nelson (Los Angeles Times) | April 25, 2013
More than a dozen female prison guards in Maryland helped a group of inmates in a dangerous national gang run a drug-trafficking and money-laundering ring from inside the walls, prosecutors contend.
A federal indictment unsealed Tuesday said 13 female guards at the Baltimore City Detention Center smuggled drugs, cellphones and prescription pills to inmates in the Black Guerrilla Family gang by hiding the contraband in their hair, shoes and underwear.
“The inmates literally took over the asylum,” said Stephen E. Vogt, special agent in charge of the Baltimore FBI office, at a news conference Tuesday. “The detention centers became safe havens” for the gang.
The indictment names 25 people, including the 13 guards, who face drug and racketeering charges. Twenty also face money-laundering charges.
All of the officers have been suspended without pay, and the department will recommend they be fired, the Washington Post reported.
Tavon White, also known as “Bulldog,” took control of the Black Guerrilla Family not long after he arrived in 2009, prosecutors said. White had been convicted of attempted murder.
In prison, White used contraband cellphones to maintain his hold on gang activity on the streets from behind bars, the indictment said, and recruited corrections officers and other inmates to help with smuggling and money laundering.
Read more at: http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-maryland-guards-drugs-sex-20130424,0,4170094.story
Photo credit: Michael S. Williamson / The Washington Post via Getty Images