Former prison guard sentenced for conspiring to smuggle drugs into Virginia prison
VENN
BUCKINGHAM COUNTY, Va. (WRIC) -- A Virginia man was sentenced for conspiring to distribute controlled substances and launder drug money with co-conspirators in both Massachusetts and Virginia on Tuesday, Feb 11.
Twenty-four-year-old Kenneth J. Owens was sentenced by U.S. District Court Chief Judge F. Dennis Saylor to 21 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release.
In September, Owens pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute MDMA and buprenorphine and two counts of money laundering conspiracy.
In December 2019 and January 2020, Owen conspired with Sathra Em, of Lowell, Mass., and Michael Mao, an inmate at The Buckingham County Correctional Facility, to smuggle three controlled substances into the prison:
- MDMA
- Buprenorphine in the form of Suboxone
- Generic Suboxone sublingual films
During this time, Owen was working as a correctional officer at the prison.
The conspiracy involved Em mailing the drugs to Owen's residence and paying him $1,600 in bribes to deliver the drugs and other contraband to Mao in prison. Mao then smuggled the drugs to other inmates at the prison.
"Em collected the drug debts on behalf of Mao in the same Cash App accounts she used to pay the bribes to Owen," a release from the Department of Justice reads. "Owen used a Cash App account with the name 'Carlos' to receive the bribes from Em, and he cashed out the funds to his bank account within minutes of receiving them."
Em and Mao previously pleaded guilty for their contributions to the conspiracy. In August, Em was sentenced to just under two years in prison followed by three years of supervised release.
Mao was sentenced to 10 years and one month in prison followed by four years of supervised release in November.
