A former Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection employee and an incarcerated inmate were both charged in connection with possessing and moving a synthetic drug through a federal prison, United States Attorney Leah Foley’s office said.
The former state employee, Tasha Hammock, 43, was charged with providing contraband to a prison inmate; Raymond Gaines, 45, an inmate at FMC Devens, was indicted on the charge of possessing contraband by a prison inmate.
Both were previously charged by criminal complaint in March 2025.
On Aug. 18, 2024, Hammock visited Gaines in prison, Foley’s office said in a statement. At the time, she “surreptitiously passed K2-laced papers to Gaines, which he pocketed,” the statement added. She also gave him money connected to the distribution of K2, a synthetic cannabinoid, which she also received at her home.
A cell phone smuggled into the prison where Gaines was incarcerated was found to be receiving messages about obtaining K2 in prison, Foley’s office said. The person initiating the text exchange said the drugs would be delivered at a Bridgewater address, later determined to be Hammock’s home.
“K2 presents a health problem at FMC Devens, where inmates have become sick from smoking paper believed to contain K2, as well as prison staff who have been exposed to the secondary smoke,” the statement read.
Gaines was sentenced in January 2022 to over seven years in prison after he pleaded guilty to possession with intent to distribute cocaine and possessing a firearm in furtherance of drug trafficking, Foley’s office said. At the time that these offenses happened, Gaines was on federal supervised release after serving a prison sentence resulting from a 2017 conviction for distributing cocaine base within 1,000 feet of a school.
Gaines, also believed to be part of the Orchard Park Trailblazers, a Boston street gang, received clemency to reduce his current federal sentence from seven years to five.
The charges of providing a prohibited object to a prison inmate, and receiving a prohibited object by a prison inmate, each carry a penalty of up to 10 years in prison, up to three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000.
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