FBI Accuse and Arrest 45 Georgia prison guards for taking bribes, drug trafficking, and more

Federal authorities announced charges against dozens of current or former Georgia corrections officers accused of using their badges to protect drug dealers on Thursday.

In all, 49 individuals were arrested, including 45 current or former Ga. corrections officers. They were scheduled to appear before a judge on Thursday.

The corrections officers are accused of a variety of charges, from smuggling contraband into Georgia prisons to accepting bribes in exchange for protecting drug deals that occurred outside of the facilities, federal officials said.

The facilities involved in Thursday's indictments include:

Hancock State Prison (Sparta, Ga.)
Riverbend Correctional Facility (Sparta, Ga.)
Pulaski State Prison (Hawskinsville, Ga.)
Baldwin State Prison (Milledgeville, Ga.)
Dooly State Prison (Unadilla, Ga.)
Phillips State Prison (Buford. Ga.)
Dodge State Prison (Chester, Ga.)
Autry State Prison (Unadilla, Ga.)
Macon State Prison (Oglethorpe, Ga.)

Additional, five members of the DOC Tactical Team, which are trained in riot and crowd control, firearms, chemical munitions, and other non-lethal munitions, were charged and arrested.

www.13wmaz.com...

More at link.

Now THAT is a real conspiracy, if true and they are convicted. Wide-ranging corruption busted after a two year investigation.

In exchange for thousands of dollars, the officers agreed to wear their DOC uniforms and accompany a purported drug trafficker while he delivered narcotics. In some cases, the officers agreed to transport the drugs themselves.

Now, what was it people were saying about conspiracy theorists again? Wackos? Uh-huh. The FBI just needs to move a little higher up the food chain. And that doesn't including shooting innocent protesters.

Wow, just wow!

Imagine the stoney faced look the judge in court will be giving these guys while they are at their arraignment hearings and the prosecutor reads off the details to the judge..

Wouldn't want to be in their shoes. (Or those orange plastic sandals) they might be wearing.

Lol, one prison down, 1,518,559 to go…

…according to this anyway.

a reply to: NoCorruptionAllowed

I know right?

"It is truly troubling that so many corrections officers from across the state of Georgia could be so willing to sell their oath, sell their badges for personal profit to benefit and protect purported drug transactions -- drug dealers," said John Horn, United States Attorney in the Northern District of Georgia. "They not only betrayed the institutions that they were sworn to protect, but they betrayed the trust and faith of thousands of honest corrections officers who upload the values of their jobs every day."

So true.

That is a major bust, with so many people involved. Seriously. Sick.

originally posted by: intrptr

Lol, one prison down, 1,518,559 to go…

…according to this anyway.

I believe there are nine prisons listed. But still, that brings up the point for the potential of this same situation to be occurring in other states. The chances are pretty high it is. Makes me wonder why more aren't busted. Because corruption is profitable.

Well that does suck, I was just about to make some reservations.
Oh well, I guess there's always Florida.

You know i love your threads TA, but you're a couple days late.

Nasty business, all around.

originally posted by: TrueAmerican
Because corruption is profitable.

Precisely. I can say from firsthand experience that the same sort of thing happens here. Only problem is that a significant number of the police are in on it as well, and at least one judge that I'm aware of. It's disgusting, really.

a reply to: jadedANDcynical

Figures. Well, maybe they could move it to the BAN forum- under the two thread rule. Or somewhere. Or, since it is in a different forum- just leave it. I'll let the mods sort it out.

a reply to: TrueAmerican

Makes me wonder why more aren't busted.

Keeping up appearances. The whole justice system is broke. Privatized prisons for profit, the focus necessarily becomes the number of prisoners… the goal, ever more.

a reply to: TrueAmerican

The FBI just needs to move a little higher up the food chain. And that doesn't including shooting innocent protesters.

guy who wrote this for preznit

This doesn't come as a surprise to anyone who's been in jail or prison before.

I got in trouble a little over 7 years ago and did a little stint in county for six months in SoCal and learned a lot about what "justice" means in America.

a reply to: TrueAmerican

Not surprising. Here in the UK female prison officers smuggle drugs into prison internally,then pass it to their girlfriends. It's then used as a control system. Prisoners often have valuable knowledge about criminal enterprises outside.

It's an unenviable investigation. I've had a CID detective at the door asking for information about someone else who had seen a small amount of the activity. He was one of the toughest looking detectives I've ever seen. Softly spoken but clearly very capable. As far as I know that case got nowhere.

a reply to: intrptr Native Georgian here. My family have been and are presently in law enforcement. Personally know the undercover agent who had been working on this for at least two years and this "sting" barely touches the amount of bad apples in it for the drug deals. Our criminal system, mostly run by for-profit companies, is in really bad shape in Georgia; and always has been. Don't know anyone personally ever been in jail but have heard the stories; it's common knowledge. Sad.

originally posted by: Justso
a reply to: intrptr Native Georgian here. My family have been and are presently in law enforcement. Personally know the undercover agent who had been working on this for at least two years and this "sting" barely touches the amount of bad apples in it for the drug deals. Our criminal system, mostly run by for-profit companies, is in really bad shape in Georgia; and always has been. Don't know anyone personally ever been in jail but have heard the stories; it's common knowledge. Sad.

Reposting for others. Thanks for the inside perspective.