Tekashi69 kidnapper, Anthony Harv Ellison Xanax oxycodone and Naloxone
While delivering cocaine to Tekashi69, a federal prison employee in New York City vouched for his captor.
Federal authorities said Thursday that a secretary at Manhattan's notorious federal prison vouched for Tekashi69's kidnapper as a "good inmate" while also transporting him drugs.
Sharon Griffith-McKnight, the unit secretary on the floor of the Metropolitan Correctional Center where Anthony "Harv" Ellison was confined, filed a letter to the judge hearing the case praising Ellison's "tremendous leadership qualities" while incarcerated.
Federal prosecutors now allege that Griffith-McKnight, 35, was aware that Ellison was not a role model — given that she was assisting him in smuggling contraband into the jail.
"At the time, Griffith was smuggling contraband to Ellison and thus knew that Ellison was not a'model inmate,'" states an unsealed indictment Thursday.
Ellison and Griffith, as well as seven other inmates and two correctional employees, were charged in the Manhattan Federal Court case.
Ellison, a senior member of the Nine Trey Bloods, was convicted in October 2019 of kidnapping Tekashi following a disagreement with the rainbow-haired rapper. At the corner of Atlantic and Bedford Avenues in Brooklyn, stunning footage captured the kidnapping at gunpoint. Ellison, 34, allegedly stole Tekashi's Rolex, Cuban Links bracelet, four diamond rings, a spinning 69-diamond chain, a Jigsaw chain from the film "Saw," and a $95,000 My Little Pony necklace.
At Ellison's November 2020 sentence, Ellison's record of exemplary behavior at MCC, Judge Paul Engelmayer stated, was "exceptional."
"Unless this is some type of Grisham novel in which everyone is corrupt and fabricating information about Ellison, it appears to me that... (Ellison's) trajectory at the MCC contains a great deal of good," Engelmayer said.
Prosecutors allege that the contraband crew supplied hazardous and addictive medications within the jail, including Xanax and oxycodone, as well as Naloxone, a medication that may be used to resuscitate persons who have overdosed.
According to the officials, the contraband team also sneaked in K2, a synthetic cannabinoid, as well as cell phones, chargers, headphones, beer, and cigarettes.
"We claim that the guards arrested today behaved exactly like the criminals they were charged with and aided jailed convicts in committing more crimes," FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Michael Driscoll stated.
The smuggling operation took place between October 2019 and January 2021. According to the indictment, the detainees sent thousands of dollars to the cops who brought in the drugs and devices.
Prosecutors allege that one of the convicts, Donnell Murray, had an accomplice wire over $16,000 to two accomplices of correctional officer Perry Joyner following the guard's smuggled in drugs, whiskey, and phones.
Joyner is also charged with intimidating an inmate to remain silent about the scam, according to the indictment.
The Justice Department announced in August that it will close MCC after years of dysfunction and accusations about appalling conditions. In 2019, the penitentiary made headlines after Jeffrey Epstein committed suicide in his cell while awaiting trial.
Conspiracy, wire fraud, narcotics distribution conspiracy, and obstruction of justice are among the charges in the case.
Mario Feliciano, a correction officer, is also charged in the case. Ellison, Murray, Markeen Jordan, Tyrell Sumpter, Kevin Crosby, David Valerio, Virgilio Acevedo De Los Santos, and Starlin Nunez are the inmates busted in the plan.
Four defendants were apprehended Thursday, while the remaining seven were previously detained.