FIVE STATE CORRECTIONAL GUARDS CHARGED FEDERALLY FOR SMUGGLING DRUGS INTO CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTION

R. Alexander Acosta, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Jonathan I. Solomon, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Walter A. McNeil, Secretary of the Florida Department of Corrections, and Alexander E. Rolle, Jr., Chief of Police, Homestead Police Department, announced a series Indictments against five State of Florida Correctional Officers working at Dade Correctional Institution (“DCI”), for conspiring and attempting to traffic illegal narcotics inside the prison, in violation of Title 21, United States Code, Section 846, and for accepting cash payments from inmates in return for helping to deliver narcotics inside the prison, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1951. These Correctional Officers, as well as a prison contract employee and other individuals involved in the narcotics trafficking, were arrested today.

Arrested and charged were Captain Jimmy Lee Love, Jr., Officer Shantavia A.L. Johnson, Officer Dennard G. Fluker, Officer Alexander J. Davis, and Officer Ivis N. Grace, all Correctional Officers at DCI, a maximum security state prison in Florida City, Florida. Felicia Z. Calloway, a contract employee who worked in the DCI kitchen was charged and taken into custody as well. Also named in the Indictments were Arnold S. Lindsay, Jr., Jose Rodriguez, Henry J. Benjamin, Nilo Penton, Joseph Springer, and Leon O. Montes, all DCI inmates, as well as Barbara N. Rodriguez, an associate of one of the inmates.

The four separate Indictments are the result of Operation Birdcage, an FBI undercover investigation into public corruption at DCI. The investigation generated multiple undercover meetings in which an undercover police officer posed as a drug dealer who was available to provide illegal drugs for movement inside DCI. During the investigation, the undercover agent was referred to inmates who were connected to DCI employees and contractors. This led to a series of meetings between the undercover officer and certain correctional officers, the contract employee, and the inmate associate. Meetings between the undercover officer and these individuals were surveilled and recorded. Ultimately, the undercover agent supplied the defendants with sham cocaine and heroin for introduction into DCI, and money payment for their services.

The defendants face a maximum twenty year sentence on each charge and a $250,000 fine if convicted.

Mr. Acosta commended the investigative efforts of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Department of Corrections, State of Florida, and the Homestead Police Department. These cases are being handled by Assistant United States Attorney Brian Frazier.

A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida at www.usdoj.gov/usao/fls . Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at http://www.flsd.uscourts.gov/ or on http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov/.