BALTIMORE — Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh on Thursday announced the indictments of 26 people, including two correctional officers, with charges ranging from attempted first-degree murder to drug distribution.
The charges stem from a nearly yearlong, multi-agency investigation, led by the Maryland Office of the Attorney General, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, into a prison conspiracy involving the 8-Trey Crips, a Baltimore City gang operating both inside Maryland prisons and on the street.
The main target of the joint investigation was Correctional Officer Sgt. Antoine Fordham, who was hired in 2006 and is also a high-ranking member of the 8-Trey Crips street gang.
“He (Fordham) was basically running operations for the 8-Trey Crips up in the northeast section of Baltimore (City) after work, and then going into work and basically providing direction to many of the inmates,” DEA Assistant Special Agent in Charge Don Hibbert said at the announcement.
The investigation grew to include the 26 people indicted in the large-scale operation that was occurring within Maryland correctional facilities, including neighboring Jessup Correctional Institution and Maryland Correctional Institution-Jessup, to traffic drugs into, and money out of, the prisons.
Those indicted include two correctional officers, prisoners and relatives of gang members.
Co-conspirators, including the mothers of three inmates, were indicted on charges of arranging the exchange of contraband, including controlled dangerous substances, for money.
According to Frosh, gang members inside the prison would arrange meetings with the co-conspirators, who would exchange money and the contraband with other co-conspirators. Fordham and Phillipe Jordan, another correctional officer, were both charged with drug trafficking among other crimes.
Violent charges were also included in the indictment, including during the investigation where a former Crips member was discovered to be gay, and was then stabbed more than 30 times. The victim survived.
Penalties faced by those indicted range from three years to life imprisonment, according to Frosh.
“This is just the beginning. We had the case last fall, we have this case today, we have other cases that are coming, and we’re not gonna stop until we have pushed every lead that we have about corrupt officers still working for us,” said Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services Secretary Stephen T. Moyer at Thursday’s announcement.
As of 2015, Maryland correctional officers are required to pass a polygraph before being hired, according to Moyer.
Last year, federal authorities indicted 80 people, including 18 corrections officers, on charges of sneaking contraband into the Eastern Correctional Institution in Westover, Maryland, and in 2013 the Black Guerilla Family gang used were charged with murder and racketeering while they took control of the Baltimore City Detention Center.
“We want these folks brought to justice. As I said, they are behind bars at the moment, and we want to make sure they stay there for a while,” said Frosh.