BOSTON – A corrections officer at the Massachusetts
Correctional Institute facility in Norfolk (MCI-Norfolk) was sentenced today in
federal court in Boston for a conspiracy to smuggle Suboxone strips into the
facility for an inmate.
William Holts, 51, of Pawtucket, R.I., was sentenced by U.S.
District Court Judge Indira Talwani to time served in prison, two years of
supervised with the first three months to be served in home confinement, and
ordered to pay a fine of $2,000. Holts previously forfeited a 2006 M35 Infinity
and $1,250 in cash. In July 2018, Holts pleaded guilty to one count of
conspiracy to possess a controlled substance.
Beginning around April 30, 2018, Holts advised an inmate,
for whom he had smuggled other contraband, that he was willing to smuggle drugs
into MCI-Norfolk in exchange for cash. In a series of recorded calls, Holts
arranged to meet with a source outside the correctional facility to get the
cash and obtain drugs to be smuggled in. Holts agreed to bring in over 100
Suboxone strips in exchange for $2,000 in cash.
According to court documents, Suboxone is a Class III
controlled substance intended to treat heroin addiction, but some abuse the
drug to get high. It is coveted contraband in prisons across the nation and
particularly in New England. Suboxone strips, which dissolve under the tongue,
may be tucked behind envelope seams and stamps.
United States Attorney Andrew E. Lelling; Harold H. Shaw,
Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Field
Division; and Commissioner Thomas A. Turco III of the Massachusetts Department
of Correction made the announcement today. Assistant U.S. Attorney Eugenia M.
Carris of Lelling’s Public Corruption and Special Prosecutions Unit prosecuted
the case.
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