Former Corrections Officer gets 3 years for smuggling drugs and cell phones into state prison

By Gangsters Inc. Editors

Convicts get a bad rap, but when it comes to them having drugs or phones behind bars there is only one responsible party: the prison personnel. 43-year-old Anibal Navarro worked as a corrections officer at Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility, but had a side hustle supplying inmates with methamphetamine, heroin, marijuana and cell phones.

He was sentenced in federal court on Thursday to 3 years in prison.

Navarro pleaded guilty, admitting that he was part of a network of 12 individuals both inside and outside the prison that smuggled in contraband and illegal narcotics. All the other defendants have pleaded guilty and been sentenced.

Mastermind behind bars

One of Navarro’s co-conspirators, prison inmate Martin Gomez, organized and directed the other participants, including Navarro, from his cell in California state prisons in San Diego and Los Angeles. Gomez arranged for individuals outside of prison to smuggle contraband into Donovan prison and deliver drugs and cell phones to various inmates through Navarro. Gomez directed those inmates to receive the contraband and deliver it to still other inmates within the prison.

Gomez approached Navarro while Gomez was an inmate at Donovan, offering him an avenue to make extra money that Gomez knew Navarro needed. Navarro was paid between $1,000 and $2,000 each time he smuggled contraband into the prison. Gomez continued to lead the conspiracy for over two years, even after he was transferred out of Donovan to another prison. Over 500 grams of methamphetamine, heroin, cell phones, and other contraband were smuggled into Donovan through Navarro at Gomez’s direction while he was incarcerated elsewhere.

The smuggled phones were used to coordinate criminal activity both inside and outside Donovan.

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