A former Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office detention officer, Andres Salazar, was sentenced to two years in prison for smuggling meth and fentanyl into the Maricopa County Lower Buckeye Jail.
A grand jury has also indicted inmates Gilbert Anthony Lerma and Antwaun Travon Ware, along with dealer Khadar Omar Sheikh,* for their involvement in the jail drug ring.
“Fentanyl is a poison that is seeping into every corner of Maricopa County. It is critically important that our jails remain drug-free,” said Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell. “My office will continue to support MCSO in its efforts to keep jails clean.”
Salazar was arrested as he arrived to work on November 2022. MCSO’s Custody Bureau Intelligence Division developed information indicating Salazar would be smuggling drugs into the jail for inmates Lerma and Ware in exchange for payments from outside sources. At the time of his arrest, 58.3 grams of methamphetamine and more than 100 fentanyl pills were found in Salazar’s vehicle. Sheikh is accused of procuring and transporting the drugs with the intention of bringing them into the jail.
In December 2023, Salazar pled guilty to one count of soliciting to commit promoting prison contraband, a Class Four Felony. He now faces two years in prison, along with an additional four years of supervised probation.
Lerma was indicted on one count of conspiracy to commit promoting prison contraband, a Class Two Felony.
Sheikh and Ware were each indicted on one count of conspiracy to commit promoting prison contraband, a Class Two Felony; one count sale or transportation of a dangerous drug, a Class Two Felony; and one count of sale or transportation of a narcotic drug, a Class Two Felony.
IMO- How proud the parents of these perpetrators must be. They succeeded in contributing to the decline of America and the poisoning deaths while their priority is making money as criminals. Certainly the parents may weakly claim “not our fault “. No doubt they are proud of that claim too. Irresponsible parents are more apt to produce children without a moral compass.