Officers, jail workers and detainee cuffed in Rikers smuggling scheme
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Rikers detainee Kristopher Francisco allegedly holding contraband smuggled into the jail by correctional officers and jail workers. Francisco was one of six people charged in federal court for the smuggling scheme this week. Photo via U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York
By Jacob Kaye
Three former correctional officers, a Rikers Island program counselor, a jails contractor and a detainee were all charged this week in federal court for scheming to smuggle drugs and other contraband into the city’s notorious jail complex.
The three officers, Carlos Rivera, Chantal De Los Santos and Stephanie Davila, were arrested on Tuesday, along with Shanequa Washington, a former counselor on Rikers, and Kenneth Webster, who worked for a Department of Correction contractor. Rikers detainee Kristopher Francisco, who was already in custody this week, was also charged in federal court.
Federal prosecutors say that the six defendants together schemed to get illicit drugs, including fentanyl, oxycodone, synthetic marijuana and marijuana, behind the walls of the city’s notoriously unsafe jail complex.
In exchange for helping to get the drugs to detainees, the officers and staffers accepted bribes from detainees, according to the charges.
“These defendants allegedly abused their former positions within the Department of Corrections by accepting bribes from multiple inmates – including one charged along with them – to smuggle contraband, including illicit substances, into several jail facilities on Rikers Island,” FBI Assistant Director in Charge James Smith said in a statement.
“This alleged conspiracy permeated Rikers Island, polluting the integrity of the Department and its institutions, while jeopardizing the trust in other officials with similar job roles,” Smith added.
Rivera, Santos and Davila are only the latest officers to be cuffed on smuggling and bribery charges. The multiple cases come as drug overdoses on Rikers Island spiked in recent years and as the city has attempted to convince a federal judge that it should remain in control of the jail complex where over two dozen people have died in the past two years.
Following the six arrests this week, the city’s Department of Investigation issued a report detailing a number of recommendations they say would help prevent staff from smuggling drugs or other contraband into Rikers.
“As charged, former city correction officers and employees, and a former employee of a vendor to DOC, used their positions of trust to traffic drugs and cell phones into Rikers Island jail facilities,” DOI Commissioner Jocelyn Strauber said in a statement. “Contraband in our city’s jails fuels disorder and violence, and DOI has issued recommendations to the Department of Correction intended to improve controls around officers’ and vendors’ entry and access to jail facilities, and to thereby limit the flow of contraband.”
The officers arrested worked in several different facilities on Rikers.
Rivera was assigned to the North Infirmary Command and prosecutors say he perpetrated the smuggling and bribery scheme from December 2021 through February 2022.
According to the charges, Rivera’s services were obtained by detainees via Instagram. Investigators claim that lengthy conversations through text messages sent between detainees revealed that Rivera’s name was passed around as a potential “Uber ride,” or someone who would be able to move contraband through the jail.
The charges detail an approximately week-long saga in which Rivera allegedly worked to get cigarettes, marijuana and other drugs into Rikers on behalf of several detainees.
Rivera allegedly went to the South Bronx from his home in Yonkers to purchase the contraband on Dec. 22, 2021.
The next day, Rivera went to work on Rikers. There, around 9 a.m., surveillance footage allegedly showed a detainee being escorted to a shower area by a different staff member.
Cameras also allegedly captured Rivera in the vicinity. At one point, he went to grab several towels. Returning into the view of the camera, Rivera left the towels in the shower area and walked into a staff locker room. He then came out, “inspected one towel in particular” and then handed the rolled up towel to a detainee he had been texting with earlier.
The next day, the detainee allegedly made a phone call to a co-conspirator and said that he had just taken Percocet.
Similar schemes were allegedly perpetrated by De Los Santos, who was assigned to the Anna M. Kross Center and took bribes from detainees in exchange for smuggling contraband into the jails from March until June 2022.
De Los Santos allegedly worked with Washington, the program counselor with the DOC who also accepted bribes, to get contraband into AMKC. De Los Santos also allegedly recruited Webster, the contractor, to smuggle contraband into the jails.
Washington was allegedly caught on surveillance footage bringing envelopes into the jails for detainees, who were later seen bringing them into their cells. Before a number of those instances, Washington allegedly spoke with De Los Santos, who in turn spoke with detainees.
Much like the other cases, prosecutors say Davila, a correctional officer assigned to AMKC, helped to smuggle drugs in for Francisco, a detainee, in exchange for bribes between July and August 2021.
All of the defendants face up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
In response to the bust, DOI issued eight recommendations to the DOC, including two that it had previously recommended.
DOI said that DOC should move staff lockers outside of jail facilities and before screening areas. Additionally, they said the agency should require staff members to secure their cell phones in their lockers prior to moving through screening areas.
The agency also said the DOC should increase the number of drug-sniffing dogs it has posted at gates and hire external contractors or law enforcement to serve as front gate staff rather than DOC staff “to ensure that front gate staff are free of conflicts of interest and conduct robust searches and screening of DOC staff.”
It also said DOC should prohibit staff from bringing unsealed or open containers into the jails, prohibit them from visiting unauthorized areas and implement a review process for outside employees or contractors.
DOI also recommended that detainees who have smuggled or been caught possessing contraband in the jails in the past should be rotated between different housing areas to ensure that they don’t gain control over any one housing area. It also said the DOC should establish a classification system for detainees who attempt to bribe staff.
A DOC spokesperson said DOI’s recommendations were under review.
“There is zero-tolerance for anyone – staff or visitors - who attempts to bring contraband and narcotics into our jails,” DOC Commissioner Lynelle Maginley-Liddie said in a statement. “This illegal behavior endangers the lives of people in custody and our staff. The department is working diligently to improve security and prevent contraband from entering its facilities.”
According to the DOC, there have been a little more than a dozen discoveries of contraband inside Rikers Island in 2024.
