A few guards just went from in front of the jail bars to behind them. Seven correction officers have been charged with drug smuggling at New York jail, Rikers Island, said authorities Tuesday.
The Drug Enforcement Agency accused the officers of sneaking cocaine and oxycodone into the facility and charging inmates $400 to $900 per package. Officers Infinite Divine Rahming (left) and Steven Dominguez (center) even claimed they would use their “badge and gun” to protect drug dealers. The third officer, Deleon Gifth (right) retired this year, but was still caught during the five-month sting operation that involved several city and federal agencies.
However, between Feb. 25 and June 23, the pills the officers were sneaking into one of the nation’s largest jails were fake.
Prosecutors say Rahming and Dominguez told an undercover DEA agent that they had been smuggling cocaine and oxycodone into the prison for five months. Gifth was charged with arranging to have a friend sneak oxycodone into the facility. Another four unnamed officers face either demotion or firing in relation to the case.
A DEA agent helped conduct the investigation by going undercover as a relative of an inmate.
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