Man smuggling drugs into South MS prison was paid with money and sex, authorities say
A Mississippi man smuggled drugs, cellphones and other contraband into a Greene County prison in exchange for $300 in cash and sexual favors, according to charging documents filed in U.S. District Court.
A corrections officer caught Lester Brown moments after the officer saw Brown throw four or five duct-taped packages of assorted contraband over a perimeter fence outside the South Mississippi Correctional Institution, the records say. The prison is near Leakesville, about 50 miles southeast of Hattiesburg.
The crime occurred around 3:30 in the morning on Jan. 14.
After the arrest, Mississippi Department of Corrections officers found the packages that contained assorted cellphones, tobacco, 143 grams of methamphetamine, over a kilo each of marijuana and a “vegetable material” believed to be the synthetic cannabinoid, spice, and another substance that smelled like formaldehyde, according to criminal affidavit filed by Drug Enforcement Agent Keith Chappell.
Brown later told authorities that a woman he knew as “Sandra” in Hattiesburg had solicited him to throw the packages over the prison’s razor-wire fences in exchange for the cash and sex.
On the morning of the smuggling operation, Brown said he met the woman at a convenience store in Hattiesburg, and she drove him to Highway 43 in Greene County near the prison and dropped him off, the records says.
From there, Brown told authorities he ran through a wooded area, then crawled through a hole in one of prison’s perimeter fences and ran until he reached a second fence and threw the packages.
Brown told authorities the woman instructed him to throw the packages so that they would land near a guard tower.
When Brown started to run away, MDOC Officer Adrian Keys chased him and arrested Brown.
In addition to the package, the MDOC officer found a pair of pruning shears near one of the perimeter fences.
Brown remains in federal custody in Stone County on a charge of possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance.
The last reported smuggling operation at the Leakesville prison occurred in December.
That’s when authorities seized seven pounds of barbecued chicken wings, four pounds of marijuana, 20 pounds of tobacco and 38 cell phones in what MDOC officials called the “black-market Christmas” operation.
Authorities seized several hundred items in that sting, some of which had been sewn into footballs and thrown over SMCI’s 18-foot-high fences.
This story was originally published January 25, 2021 at 5:50 AM.
