CNMI Inmate Sentenced to 27 Months in Federal Prison for Assaulting Corrections Officer and Possessing Contraband

Saipan, MP – SHAWN N. ANDERSON, United States Attorney for the Districts of Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands, announced that defendant Derik Jonathan Camacho Reyes, age 41, from Saipan, was sentenced to 27 months imprisonment by the District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands.  Reyes was convicted of Assault on a Federal Officer or Employee, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 111(b), and Possessing Contraband in Prison, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1791(a)(2).  The Court ordered three years of supervised release, 100 hours of community service, and a mandatory $200 special assessment fee.  This federal sentence will run consecutive to the sentence Reyes is currently serving by prior order of the Superior Court for the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI).

On February 15, 2022, Reyes was an inmate at the CNMI Department of Corrections in Susupe Village on Saipan.  He was held in a maximum-security section with 22 other inmates, including three federal inmates.  CNMI corrections officers attempted to seize a drug pipe from Reyes after observing suspicious behavior in his cell.  Reyes resisted and attempted to flush the pipe and a small baggie containing methamphetamine down a toilet.  During the struggle, one of the officers hit his head on the corner of Reyes’s cell doorway.  The officer was treated at a local hospital for a contusion on his head, and minor chemical burns on his hand from methamphetamine and contaminant residue.

Given there is no federal detention facility in the CNMI, the United States Marshals Service contracts with the CNMI for federal prisoners to be housed at the CNMI jail.  As a result, CNMI corrections officers perform a federal function and serve in the capacity of federal employees when the corrections officers care for federal inmates. 

“Acts of violence toward detention facility employees will not be tolerated,” stated United States Attorney Anderson.  “The Court’s sentencing order is a strong measure of accountability.  We will continue to pursue cases that improve the safety of these facilities.”

This investigation was led by the United States Drug Enforcement Administration in partnership with the CNMI Department of Corrections, and prosecuted by Albert S. Flores, Jr., Assistant United States Attorney in the District of the Northern Mariana Islands.