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Massachusetts: Former Norfolk corrections officer charged with bringing narcotics into jail

Flint McColgan, Boston Herald on

Published in News & Features

BOSTON — The Norfolk County Sheriff’s office has charged one of their own with being the bagman in an alleged conspiracy to bring more than 230 stripes of suboxone, a narcotic, into the jail.

Jean Guirand, 40, of Saugus, was hired as a correctional officer in April and was still under probation when the alleged conspiracy occurred. The sheriff’s department received a tip on Aug. 1 that he was involved in a drug conspiracy and so senior staff approached him that day.

Norfolk Sheriff Patrick McDermott said in a press conference Thursday morning that his office “acted immediately after receiving the intelligence that we gathered.

“That officer, Jean Guirand, of Saugus, Massachusetts, was questioned by our investigative team on Aug. 1 before the start of his shift, and he admitted to providing the narcotics to the offenders three days earlier. Guirand was immediately placed on leave, escorted off the property, and terminated the next day,” McDermott said.

Following an investigation, the department filed for criminal charges against Guirand, detainees Dante Clark, 25, of Dorchester, and Cornel Bell, 29, of Quincy, as well as two women who are alleged to have conspired to get the drugs from outside and hand them off to Guirand: Avelina Faustin, 20, of Brockton, and Amaya Rogers, 27, of Boston.

The criminal complaints filed in Dedham District Court on Aug. 23 seek charges of conspiracy, delivering drugs to a correctional facility and possession of a class B substance with intent to distribute.

 

McDermott said that after one failed attempt with one of the women, the other met up with Guirand while he was on break and handed the drugs over in a Wendy’s bag. Guirand then reentered the jail and, in what McDermott called a “breach of protocol,” only his backpack or side bag was scanned in security and the Wendy’s bag was not screened.

Investigators then searched the cells of the two detainees, Clark and Bell, and in Bell’s cell allegedly found the drugs within a plastic baggie that was itself hidden in jars of pomade, or hair gel.

“The drugs that were involved are Suboxone, which is a major contraband issue at correctional facilities across the United States and one of the main drugs used to treat opioid addiction,” McDermott said.

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