St. Louis Post-Dispatch
ST. LOUIS — An East St. Louis man admitted on Tuesday that he tried to smuggle marijuana to a federal inmate by swapping bags of Doritos, the federal prosecutor’s office said.
Ricky J. McGee, 34, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court here to charges of providing contraband to a federal inmate and making a false representation to the Bureau of Prisons, a release from U.S. Attorney Donald S. Boyce said.
McGee faces up to five years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000 and supervised release of up to three years on each charge when he is sentenced March 1.
Prosecutors said an officer monitoring the visiting room at the federal prison in Greenville on May 8 saw McGee swap Doritos bags with an inmate. The bag given to the inmate was confiscated and eight small blue balloons with pot in them were found inside. In addition, the inmate was later found to have swallowed two similar balloons.
The charge for making a false statement was based on McGee having signed a form before the visit stating that he was not in possession of marijuana, the prosecutor said.