Press Release from U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of Mississippi
Gulfport, Miss. – A fourteenth defendant pled guilty in federal court today for his role in a prison drug conspiracy.
Trae Short, 39, pled guilty to conspiring to commit an offense against the United States by conspiring to introduce contraband into a federal prison.
According to court documents and information presented to the Court, in 2018, agents with the Drug Enforcement Agency received information from the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) that drug laced letters and greeting cards were being sent to inmates in BOP from the Southern District of Mississippi. The drug laced letters and cards were intercepted at prisons in Illinois, South Carolina, Florida, Indiana, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey.
DEA and BOP officials were able to determine that inmates were ordering the drug laced letters and cards from Johnson Tran, 46, via prison email accounts and jail calls. The inmates would typically order the drugs using coded language. The letters or greeting cards were laced with FUB-AMB and 5F-MDMB-PICA, which are Schedule I controlled substances and synthetic cannabinoids. Many of the letters and greeting cards were sent through the postal service in Gulfport. Tran’s base of operation was located in Harrison County, Mississippi.
Agents were also able to determine that Tran would ultimately receive payment for the drugs that he sent into prison via U.S. Department of Treasury checks drawn from the inmate’s prison accounts and/or peer-to-peer money transfers from associates or family members of the inmates. When Tran’s associates would receive funds on Tran’s behalf, Tran would give them a portion of the funds they received as payment for their services.
On April 18, 2023, twenty defendants were initially charged as part of the prison drug and money laundering ring. Johnson Tran and fourteen of the defendants have now pleaded guilty. Tran pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute a controlled substance and faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. William Hernandez and Chaze Lowery pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering and they each face a maximum of 20 years in prison. Ryan Schmittaur pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute a controlled substance and faces a maximum of 20 years in prison.
Defendants Jorge Pena, Bobby Huneycutt, Clarence Plato, Ryan Douglas, Bryan Simmons, Salomon Alaya, Stanley Spriggs, Corderius Trammell, and Jonathan Estrada have all pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit an offense against the United States by conspiring to introduce contraband to a federal prison. They each face a maximum of five years in prison.
Four remaining defendants are scheduled for trial in June 2024. A fifth defendant has been arrested, and is scheduled to appear on April 9, 2024, in the Southern District of Mississippi; and a sixth defendant has indicated that he intends to plead guilty and is awaiting his change of plea hearing.
U.S. Attorney Todd W. Gee and Special Agent in Charge Steven Hofer of the Drug Enforcement Administration made the announcement.
The Drug Enforcement Administration, with assistance from the Bureau of Prisons, is investigating the case.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Jonathan Buckner.
This case is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) operation. OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level drug traffickers, money launderers, gangs, and transnational criminal organizations that threaten the United States by using a prosecutor-led, intelligence driven, multi-agency approach that leverages the strengths of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies against criminal networks.
