Former detention officer sentenced to prison for trying to smuggle drugs into Phoenix jail

A former detention officer with the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office was sentenced to two years in prison and four years of supervised probation after admitting to bringing methamphetamine and fentanyl into the Lower Buckeye Jail.

Andres Salazar, 28, was arrested in November 2022 when he arrived at work after MCSO detectives obtained information that he planned to bring drugs to Gilbert Lerma and Antwaun Ware who were inmates at the jail.

Authorities found 58.3 grams of methamphetamine and more than 100 fentanyl pills in Salazar’s vehicle, which law enforcement say he obtained from a man named Khadar Sheikh.

According to the arrest report, Salazar told investigators he had accepted $1,000 in cash for coordinating with inmates and taking a package of drugs from an outside source with the intent to introduce them into the jail, all items he said were in his car parked at the jail.

Investigators found a baseball duffel bag in the trunk of his car with drugs and $900 cash, court documents detail. Salazar told investigators he spent $100 of the $1,000 of smuggling money on food and fuel, according to charging documents.

The incident sparked an announcement from then-Maricopa County Sheriff Paul Penzone that MCSO would purchase and install body scanners at jails that everyone — including correctional staff — would be required to go through. Penzone included millimeter-wave scanners often used at airports as an example of what the department might use.

It was not immediately clear whether MCSO had implemented the body scanners or how much progress the agency had made in doing so.

In December 2023 — over a year after his initial arrest — Salazar pled guilty to one count of soliciting to commit promoting prison contraband.

Lerma has since been indicted on one count of conspiracy to commit promoting prison contraband while Sheikh and Ware were each indicted on one count of conspiracy to commit promoting prison contraband, one count sale or transportation of a dangerous drug and one count of sale or transportation of a narcotic drug.

Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell said her office would prosecute anyone who attempted to bring contraband into jails.

“Fentanyl is a poison that is seeping into every corner of Maricopa County,” Mitchell said. “It is critically important that our jails remain drug-free. My office will continue to support MCSO in its efforts to keep jails clean.”

Reach the reporter Perry Vandell at 602-444-2474 or perry.vandell@gannett.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @PerryVandell.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Former Phoenix detention officer sentenced to 2 years in prison