TRENTON, NJ—An Essex County prison guard was sentenced to 18 months in prison for his involvement in a scheme to smuggle marijuana, cell phones and tobacco into the Essex County Correctional Facility, officials announced Wednesday.
Stephon Solomon, 27, of Irvington, New Jersey, had plead guilty with one count of conspiring to commit extortion under color of official right.
According to court records and documents, this is what happened:
- On multiple occasions between October 2013 and May 2014, Solomon, a guard at the Essex County Correctional Facility, smuggled contraband – including cell phones, tobacco, and marijuana – to Quasim Nichols, 29, a federal pretrial detainee, in exchange for cash bribes.
- Darsell Davis, 29, and Dwayne Harper, 30, friends of Nichols, aided in the smuggling scheme by collecting the contraband to be smuggled into the facility.
- Solomon received the contraband and cash bribes from Davis and then smuggled the contraband to Nichols, who ultimately sold some of the marijuana and cell phones to other inmates.
- The inmates purchasing marijuana and cell phones from Nichols had their friends and family pay for the items by sending Western Union money transfers to Nichols, who enlisted Davis and others to get those payments for him.