A convicted bank robber from Phoenix, Julius Darnell Dixon, was sentenced last week in federal court to 51 months in prison, followed by 60 months of supervised release, for providing contraband to federal inmates and for a supervised release violation.
On October 21, 2024, Dixon pleaded guilty to Conspiracy to Possess with Intent to Distribute a Controlled Substance. The guilty plea also constituted a violation of Dixon’s supervised release for an earlier bank robbery conviction.
According to the Department of Justice, between February 2023 and April 2024, Dixon conspired with federal inmates at various institutions to mail books to them from bookstores in the Phoenix area containing hidden Suboxone strips. Dixon’s method of using unwitting bookstores to mail the books circumvented prison security, as the books appeared to be purchased by the inmates directly from the bookstores. Investigators identified Dixon by locating communications between Dixon and the inmates after two mailings were intercepted by prison staff. The packages were traced to bookstores in the Phoenix area, where Dixon had given his phone number and, for one mailing, his name and email address.