Former Fairfax County deputy sentenced to over six years in prison for conspiring with inmate to traffic drugs in jail and sex trafficking

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – A former Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office (FCSO) deputy was sentenced today to six years and six months in prison for conspiring to distribute drugs and other contraband to an inmate at the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center (Fairfax ADC) in exchange for bribe payments, as well as to women whom the defendant sexually trafficked out of an apartment he rented for his own financial gain and sexual gratification.

According to court documents, from May 2021 to June 21, 2023, Robert Theodore Sanford Jr., 37, was a correctional officer at Fairfax ADC, which holds detainees being held both pre- and post-trial in Fairfax County, Virginia. From December. 2022 through May 2023, Sanford smuggled contraband into Fairfax ADC and provided the contraband and confidential, law-enforcement-sensitive information to an inmate. The contraband included a cell phone and distribution quantities of fentanyl, cocaine, and Suboxone. Sanford also supplied latex gloves and glue to the inmate to help conceal the contraband. The inmate then trafficked the drugs to other inmates.

Outside Fairfax ADC, Sanford procured drugs from the inmate’s associates. In addition to the drugs Sanford smuggled into Fairfax ADC, Sanford distributed drugs to women who lived in and prostituted themselves out of an apartment that Sanford leased.

“Robert Sanford preyed on the vulnerabilities of people in his care,” said Jessica D. Aber, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. “His corruption didn’t stop with profiting from feeding the addictions of inmates in his charge. Rather than assisting homeless and addicted members of his community, Sanford used drugs to entrap them in a life of prostitution for his own gain.”

Sanford provided the inmate with information such as advance warning of cell searches by deputies, cell blocks to which deputies were proceeding in those searches, whether deputies would be conducting strip searches, and where drug-sniffing dogs were being utilized. Sanford also provided the inmate with information regarding other inmates, including which inmates might be providing information to law enforcement, which assisted Sanford’s co-conspirator in intimidating potential witnesses.

"Robert Sanford violated his oath as a sworn law enforcement officer by distributing contraband, drugs, and confidential information to inmates, who then trafficked the drugs into the detention center,” said David Geist, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Washington Field Office Criminal and Cyber Division. “Additionally, he placed the lives of inmates and his law enforcement peers in danger. Sanford threatened the security of the community and abused the public trust."

“I am incredibly grateful for the diligent efforts of our F.C.S.O. investigators and their federal colleagues that uncovered corruption that put deputies and inmates at extreme risk,” said Stacey A. Kincaid, Fairfax County Sheriff. “This criminal conduct within the A.D.C. is unacceptable and we will relentlessly pursue those who abuse their positions of trust for personal gain. We express our thanks to the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the FBI for their collaboration and partnership in bringing this criminal to justice.”

On May 4, 2023, FCSO deputies at Fairfax ADC conducted a strip search of Sanford’s co-conspirator, and in the inmate’s long underwear deputies found a cellphone, two charging cables, one portable cellular phone charger, one USB charging brick, 92 counterfeit oxycodone pills, 174 strips of Suboxone, and over three grams of cocaine. The following day, Sanford was informed of the seizure during roll call. Sanford removed his cash tag name and personal email address from the CashApp account he used to receive bribe payments for smuggling contraband into Fairfax ADC. He also stopped sending messages and making calls to the inmate and other conspirators and deleted related messages. Within two weeks of FCSO discovering the contraband, Sanford began the process of resigning from his job, falsely telling FCSO that childcare challenges were the reason for his resignation.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Heather D. Call prosecuted the case.

A copy of this press release is located on the website of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. Related court documents and information are located on the website of the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia or on PACER by searching for Case No. 1:24-cr-110.