By Nicolas Fernandes
nj.com
JERSEY CITY, N.J. — A corrections officer has pleaded guilty to accepting $14,000 from an undercover agent to smuggle cell phones and tobacco products into a jail.
Efrin Wade, 36, of Jersey City, pleaded guilty to extortion in Newark federal court on Wednesday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office District of New Jersey said in a news release.
He was working at Essex County Correctional Facility when he was charged in March of last year after getting caught in a sting operation.
A spokesperson for the Department of Corrections did not immediately respond to a request for comment seeking clarification on his employment status.
Wade started communicating with an undercover FBI agent in January of last year, who he believed was seeking to smuggle the items into the jail to sell to inmates, according to the criminal complaint. His girlfriend, Yairisa Lizardo, allegedly met with the agent in a Bayonne parking lot on Feb. 1 , when the agent gave her $10,000 in cash and a large quantity of tobacco, court documents said.
Wade then left the tobacco in concealed locations at the facility in the subsequent weeks, officials said. He told the agent about the locations and believed that inmates were picking up the tobacco, but it was really being retrieved by law enforcement, authorities said.
Wade later met with the FBI agent twice, the first time to collect a cell phone concealed within a bag of tobacco that he would also leave at a location within the jail, and a second time to receive a $4,000 payment from the agent, according to the complaint.
He also spoke to the agent about a plan to smuggle 15 more cell phones into the facility in exchange for $30,000, court documents said.
Wade was approached by agents during a shift at Essex County Correctional Facility in March 2023 and was found to be in possession of cigarettes, cigars and packs of tobacco, resulting in his arrest, officials said.
Lizardo was also charged with extortion last year and her criminal case is still pending. Wade’s sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 19.
In the video below, Gordon Graham discusses how to combat contraband in correctional facilities.
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