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| 10 D.C. Officers Charged in Smuggling Sting |
| By Washington Post |
| Published: 06/11/2001 |
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Ten D.C. corrections officers have been indicted on federal bribery charges after an undercover FBI investigation in which they allegedly accepted money in return for smuggling cash and two-way pagers to inmates, prosecutors said yesterday. D.C. inmates are not supposed to have money or communications devices, prosecutors said. But the corrections officers brought both into the District's Correctional Treatment Facility after accepting hundreds of dollars from a man who said he was acting on behalf of the inmates, they said. The man turned out to be an undercover FBI agent. The indictments followed a two-year investigation and were returned under seal last week. The charges became public yesterday as FBI agents rounded up all but two of the corrections officers at home and at work. One officer remained at large, and another made arrangements to turn himself in next week, prosecutors said. Nine of those indicted worked for the Corrections Corp. of America, a private contractor that operates the Correctional Treatment Facility in Southeast Washington. The facility, next to the D.C. jail, houses 780 inmates. The tenth officer works at the D.C. jail for the D.C. Department of Corrections. Unlike previous scandals involving the Corrections Department, the latest charges do not involve the smuggling of drugs. Instead, the officers allegedly took money from a man who claimed to be a friend of numerous inmates. That man -- the FBI agent -- turned over cash and pagers for delivery, authorities said. Officers typically were permitted to keep half the cash and got $ 100 per pager, they said. Once the items were delivered to cooperating inmates, the FBI confiscated them, authorities said. Prosecutors said cash is considered contraband because it can encourage illegal commerce and other illegal activities. Pagers are banned in jail facilities because they can be used for unmonitored communications, prosecutors said. |
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