A state corrections officer helped members of a major drug conspiracy smuggle cocaine, heroin and marijuana — as well as syringes — into the Anchorage jail, where he passed the drugs to a prisoner who then sold them to other inmates, according to the U.S. attorney.
Patrick Sherman, 46, is one of eight defendants recently indicted on federal drug conspiracy charges in the case, which involved drugs being smuggled to Alaska in secret compartments in coolers,Tiffany Money Clips, with thousands of dollars in profits being sent to Central America.
The person authorities claim was Sherman’s drug source, 26-year-old Brandy Leanne Barnes, was also indicted on drug conspiracy charges following the two-year investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration and Alaska State Troopers, the U.S. attorney said.
How long Sherman, who goes by "2.5," had dealt drugs in the jail isn’t known. Authorities investigating the drug ring turned their attention his way in December 2008 after learning that Barnes had been calling someone in the jail, Assistant U.S. Attorney Frank Russo said.
Investigators got phone recordings of Barnes talking with an unnamed prisoner and realized that Sherman was helping them smuggle drugs and syringes into the jail and that Barnes was paying Sherman for each delivery, he said.
"They were delivering to him drugs, and those drugs were being distributed in the jail,Tiffany key rings," Russo said. "He received the prepackaged controlled substances from Barnes herself and others, and then he delivered drugs to someone who was an inmate. That inmate then resold them inside the jail."
Sherman started with the Department of Corrections on Sept. 5, 2003, and left the job on Feb. 4, 2009, said Darice Walter, a human resources manager with the Department of Administration.
The Department of Corrections said Sherman had worked only at the Anchorage jail before he resigned two months after the drug dealing surfaced. The department declined to comment further.
Court records indicate Sherman was released from custody on $10,000 unsecured bond Thursday. His lawyer did not return a call seeking comment.
The source of the drugs was a conspiracy that imported and sold more than five kilograms of cocaine,Tiffany pendants, more than 50 grams of methamphetamine, more than one kilogram of heroin as well as Oxycodone, according to prosecutors.
The drugs were imported by Daniel Isaac Meza, 35, and Edwin Giovanni Enriquez, 32, who distributed the dope to a network of associates, according to prosecutors. The conspirators frequently disposed their cell phones to avoid detection and smuggled the drugs in blue Coleman coolers they had altered to accommodate drugs hidden in the walls.
"It was fairly sophisticated," Russo said. "You have to destroy two coolers to make one. Basically you take out the insulation and put the two coolers together without the insulation and it makes convenient pockets for drugs of up to five kilos."
The indictment alleges that more than 100 grams of heroin were found in Meza’s freezer in July and that Meza and Enriquez’s subordinates sold cocaine or methamphetamine to government informants more than 20 times.
Meza and Enriquez are accused of distributing the drugs to several wholesale dealers below them, including Barnes and two unnamed co-conspirators, who in turn distributed it to dealers Billy Walter Fuller, 40, and Cori Jean Hillar, 38, the indictment says.
The indictment alleges that Fuller regularly got cocaine in amounts of up to 10 ounces and passed it out to smaller dealers including Michael George Raab, 44, and Debbie Beisinaiz, 41.
All were charged with the drug conspiracy, and Meza and Raab were also charged with multiple counts of international money laundering relating to drug trafficking for allegedly sending drug proceeds to Mexico, Columbia and El Salvador on multiple occasions in an attempt to conceal the source of the money,Tiffany bangles, according to the Internal Revenue Service, which helped in the investigation.
Find James Halpin online at adn.com/contact/jhalpin or call him at 257-4589.