State News

Accused turncoat: Michigan prison guard charged with trying to bring drugs to inmates

April 17, 2022, 9:39 AM

A 29-year-old corrections officer from Flint faces trial on federal charges of having three types of narcotics -- heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine -- that he intended to smuggle into his workplace for distribution to prisoners.

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(Photo: Drug Enforcement Administration)

Brandon McGaffigan was arraigned this week and freed on bond to await trial June 14, the U.S. attorney's office says in a statement Friday. He's a guard at Thumb Correctional Facility, which holds about 1,200 juveniles and adults in the southwest corner of Lapeer County.

McGaffigan was caught at the rural prison on Jan. 22 with more than 50 grams of methamphetamine and the other two drugs and initially charged at the county level, authorities say. He faces up to 20 to 30 years in prison on each of the three counts, and is suspended without pay, according to The Detroit News.

A federal grand jury indicted him this month, and McGaffigan surrendered to DEA investigators this week. A federal magistrate in Flint freed him on $10,000 unsecured bond. 

"As a corrections officer, McGaffigan’s duties are to maintain safety and security within the facility," U.S. Attorney Dawn Ison says in the statement. "The allegations that he intended to smuggle drugs into the prison completely undermines his duties as a corrections officer and creates significant dangers within the walls of the prison."

Kent Kleinschmidt, acting special agent in charge of the DEA's Detroit division, is quoted as saying: "Illicit drugs have no place in our society, but they can be especially problematic inside a correctional facility." 



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