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Mass. inmate accused of using relationship with nurse to smuggle drugs

Chad Connors, 42, and William Guillemette, 39, allegedly ran an operation to sell opioids to other inmates

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AP Photo/Elise Amendola

By Dan Glaun
MassLive.com

SOUTH WALPOLE, Mass. — A man who helped carry out a prison murder and an inmate who shot his brother’s girlfriend are now accused of smuggling drugs into MCI-Cedar Junction, using family connections and a romantic relationship with a prison nurse.

Chad Connors, 42, and William Guillemette, 39, allegedly ran an operation to sell the opioid suboxone and the anxiety drug alprazolam to other inmates within MCI-Cedar Junction, according to a federal indictment. They each now face a count of conspiracy to possess controlled substances with intent to distribute.

Connors was already incarcerated at the prison for serving as a lookout during the murder of another inmate at the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center. Guillemette was convicted in 2009 of wounding his brother’s girlfriend with a shotgun blast.

Connors and Ramos were both housed in the MCI-Cedar Junction’s Departmental Disciplinary Unit, federal authorities said. Connors allegedly began a romantic relationship with Christine Ramos, a nurse in the unit who was responsible for distributing prescription drugs to inmages.

Ramos has already pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute suboxone and alprazolam, better known by its trade name Xanax. Prosecutors say she agreed to a request by Connors to help smuggle drugs into the prison.

“In order to do this, Ramos opened two Post Office Boxes through a third party. Connors sent letters and money to Ramos at these P.O. Boxes, and, at Guillemette’s direction, his wife, Lisa, and mother, Margaret, obtained and sent Suboxone and Alprazolam to the P.O. Boxes,” the Office of U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling said in a news release.

Ramos then picked up the drugs and smuggled them into the Departmental Disciplinary Unit, delivering them to Connors. Connors then allegedly sold the drugs to other inmates, who sent checks to Guillemette’s wife and mother as payment.

Lisa and Margaret Guillemette were arrested on Friday, federal authorities said.

While in the outside world suboxone is typically prescribed to help addicts quit heroin, in prison it is valuable contraband, the U.S. Attorney’s Office has said. It is distributed in dissolvable strips that are easily concealed behind envelope seams and stamps.

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