Mass. inmate granted clemency by Biden charged with smuggling drug-laced paper into federal prison

Authorities say FMC Devens inmate Raymond Gaines, a former gang associate granted clemency in January, received K2-laced paper from a visiting state employee

March 05, 2025 06:06 PM

By Rick Sobey
Boston Herald

BOSTON — An inmate who was recently granted clemency from then-President Joe Biden has been charged in connection with smuggling K2-laced paper into federal prison.

A state worker with the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection is also facing charges with conspiring to distribute a synthetic cannabinoid into FMC Devens.

Inmate Raymond Gaines, 45, had been granted clemency Jan. 17 in the final days of Biden’s time in office — reducing Gaines’ 2022 federal prison sentence for drug distribution.

Now, Gaines and 43-year-old Tasha Hammock, an employee with the state Department of Environmental Protection, are charged with conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance analogue.

Hammock is a program coordinator at the state Department of Environmental Protection, and she took home more than $84,000 in total pay last year, according to state payroll records.

Last Aug. 18, Hammock while visiting Gaines in prison allegedly surreptitiously passed K2-laced papers to him, which he pocketed.

“In addition, Hammock allegedly previously handled money connected with the distribution of K2 to Gaines in FMC Devens, and she allegedly received K2 at her residence for distribution into the prison,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office wrote.

Law enforcement became interested in Hammock’s visits to Gaines after obtaining a phone that had allegedly been smuggled to an inmate in the prison. In September 2023, the inmate allegedly sent messages on the phone to another person, discussing obtaining K2 in prison.

You can learn a lot from phone calls, such as plans for contraband being introduced to your facility or planned assaults on staff or other inmates. In the video below, Gordon Graham discusses the importance of checking inmate’s phone records.

The inmate allegedly told the person that the drugs could be delivered to a particular address in Bridgewater — later determined to be Hammock’s residence — and that the inmate’s “co” would arrange for the drugs to be brought into the prison from there.

Gaines in January of 2022 was sentenced to more than seven years in prison after pleading guilty in federal court in Boston to possession with intent to distribute cocaine and possessing a firearm in furtherance of drug trafficking.

At the time he committed the offenses, he was on federal judicial supervised release after serving a prison sentence resulting from a 2017 conviction for distributing cocaine base within 1,000 feet of a school.

Gaines was allegedly an associate of the Orchard Park Trailblazers, a street gang in Boston.

Earlier this year on Jan. 17, Gaines received an executive grant of clemency, reducing his current federal sentence to five years in prison.

Inmates at Devens in the past have become sick from smoking paper believed to contain K2, as well as prison staff who have been exposed to the secondary smoke.

K2 has also been a problem in state prisons, including at MCI-Shirley, where a correction officer last year was exposed to a toxic substance and rushed to the hospital.

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