[A] former prison guard and an inmate who was housed at the Newport prison are facing federal charges for allegedly using magic markers to smuggle buprenorphine into the facility.
VTDigger.org reported last month that the FBI was investigating Grant Vance, a longtime corrections officer at the Northern State Correctional Facility, in the drug smuggling scheme. Officials at that time had refused to comment on the status of the investigation and whether any charges would be filed.
Late Thursday afternoon, a federal grand jury in Vermont returned indictments charging Vance and Gregory Paradis, an inmate at the facility.
Both Vance and Paradis face a charge of conspiring together from the beginning of this year through June 28 to distribute buprenorphine, a generic form of Suboxone.
Vance also faces a second charge of possessing with intent to distribute buprenorphine.
Vance pleaded not guilty to the charges Friday during an arraignment hearing held in federal court in Burlington. He was released on conditions, including that he not have any contact with Paradis.
It’s not known when Paradis will be arraigned on the charge against him.
Buprenorphine is a drug used to treat opiate addiction but can be abused when not taken as directed.
Investigators used a series of prison informants to unravel the drug smuggling scheme, and according to court records, confronted Vance on June 28 and searched him and his vehicle.
That search, court records stated, turned up a magic marker containing suspected buprenorphine.
Vance was placed on administrative leave the same day of the search, June 28, and he resigned his job on Aug. 11. He had worked for the department since 2003 and was making $24.36 per hour, according to the state Department of Corrections.
Paradis has convictions of several charges, including burglary, repeated counts of escaping from furlough, assault on a law enforcement officer, and theft, according to corrections officials. He is currently incarcerated in the Springfield prison.
Several inmates, referred to in court filings as confidential informants, alleged that Vance was smuggling in the drugs and providing them to Paradis, who would then use or distribute them to other inmates in the facility, court records stated.
An inmate told investigators that in one instance Vance brought the strips of buprenorphine, also known as “bupes,” into the facility and provided them to Paradis, who then shared them with other prisoners, according to court records.
“After the bupe strips were used and ingested the following day everyone was tested and ended up ‘pissing hot,’” the informant told police, the affidavit stated.
According to the informants, Vance took great care in ensuring that the markers he brought to the facility were the same ones that are used by the DOC inside the prison.
Questions to federal prosecutors in Vermont were referred Friday to Craig LaPorte, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Vermont. He could not immediately be reached for comment.
Neither Assistant Federal Public Defender David McColgin, representing Vance, nor Maryanne Kampmann, an attorney for Paradis, could be reached Friday for comment.
Lisa Menard, state Department of Corrections commissioner, said buprenorphine, or Suboxone, are among the most common drugs smuggled into Vermont’s prisons.
Buprenorphine is also used to treat opiate addiction inside Vermont’s correctional system.
Prisoner rights groups as well as some lawmakers have been criticizing the state’s rollout of a new law aimed at making sure prisoners are screened quickly and treated for addiction by allowing more inmate access to buprenorphine or methadone treatment.
Menard did say that prison staff members are not “generally” searched when they come into work.
“The vast majority of corrections staff are honest and professional,” she said. “Criminal acts such as those alleged here put all other staff and inmates at risk and make it harder for those inmates seeking to attain or maintain sobriety.”
Typically, Vermont State Police head the criminal investigations occurring in state correctional facility. State and federal officials would not comment on why the FBI took the lead in this case.
