https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle-old/443/thisweek1.shtml

This week, we have a pair of missing Border Patrol agents and a pair of drug-smuggling prison guards. Let's get to it:

In San Diego, two US Border Patrol agents under investigation for smuggling people and drugs into the country have vanished, the Border Patrol announced June 30. Brothers Raul and Fidel Villarreal resigned earlier in the week, and federal law enforcement officials said they feared the pair were tipped off and fled to Mexico. The pair are suspected of working for Mexican-based smuggling organizations. The Border Patrol is now investigating who leaked news of the investigation to the brothers.

In Baltimore, a prison guard was arrested June 23 on charges he smuggled marijuana into his place of employment for an inmate, the Baltimore Sun reported. Antwan Black, 22, an employee of the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, was arrested at the Metropolitan Transition Center and charged with possession and possession with intent to sell marijuana, and two counts of intent to deliver to an inmate, after he was searched and found to be holding a bag of "a greenish brown leafy material," according to charging documents. Blackwell admitted that he had agreed to deliver the bag of weed for $100. He was charged and released pending further proceedings.

In Essex County, New Jersey, a former Essex County prison guard has pleaded guilty to smuggling drugs and other contraband into the county correctional facility last summer. According to the Maplewood and South Orange News-Record, Jay Griggs, 35, copped the plea week before last. He was arrested last summer carrying 30 bags of marijuana, five bindles of heroin, three bottles of cocaine, rolling papers, cigarettes, cigars, a cell phone, and a phone charger into the prison. Jail officials charged Griggs conspired with a jail inmate and his wife to smuggle the contraband into the prison. That couple have since pleaded guilty to drug possession charges. Griggs pleaded to four counts of official misconduct and faces up to three years in prison. He will be sentenced September 15 in Newark.

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