Inmate and Corrections Officer Sentenced in Federal Court on Drug Conspiracy Charges

United States Attorney Richard W. Moore of the Southern District of Alabama announced that Wiggins Washington, 52, of Bay Minette, Alabama, and Michael Rashard Dread, 34, of Foley, Alabama, were sentenced on June 2, 2020, in federal court for their involvement in a scheme to smuggle two ounces of methamphetamine ice into Fountain Correctional Facility in Atmore.  Washington, a corrections officer employed at the facility, was arrested after meeting a person he believed to be the supplier of the drugs in Bay Minette.  A confidential informant had provided information to the Department of Homeland Security Investigation about the scheme, and law enforcement intervened to arrange a controlled delivery so that Washington could be arrested prior to his delivering the drugs to the inmates who planned the drug deal from the prison.  Dread was an inmate in the prison serving time on a prior state drug charge.  Washington pled guilty to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine and carrying a firearm in relation to a drug trafficking charge in September of 2019.  Dread pled guilty to the conspiracy charge in October of 2019.

United States District Court Judge Terry F. Moorer imposed a sentence of 84 months in Washington’s case, consisting of the statutory minimum mandatory consecutive penalty of five years on the gun charge, with a consecutive sentence of 24 months on the drug charge.  The judge ordered that Washington will serve a five year term of supervised release when he completes his custody sentence.  No fine was imposed, but the judge ordered that Washington pay $200 in special mandatory assessments and forfeit the firearm used in the offense. 

Dread was sentenced to a term of 120 months imprisonment, to be followed a five year term of supervised release.  As conditions of his supervised release term, the judge ordered that Dread undergo testing and treatment for drug abuse and mental health treatment, if recommended by the probation office.  No fine was imposed, but the judge ordered that Dread pay $100 in special mandatory assessments. 

A third participant in the scheme, inmate Kevin Depaul Davidson, 46, was previously sentenced by Judge Moorer in February of 2020 to a term of 262 months imprisonment.  Davidson was serving a life sentence on state charges at the time of his participation in the scheme. 
  
The investigation was conducted by the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, and the Department of Homeland Security Investigations.  It was prosecuted in the United States Attorney’s Office by Assistant United States Attorney Gloria Bedwell.