5 prison guards charged with smuggling drugs
MIAMI (AP) -- Five guards at a Miami-Dade County prison are charged with smuggling drugs into the facility.
Federal indictments also charge them with taking cash from inmates in return for helping to deliver the drugs inside the prison.
They were arrested Friday. The guards worked at Dade Correctional Institution in Florida City, about 28 miles north of Miami.
A kitchen employee at the prison and several inmates were also charged.
Prosecutors say the arrests were part of an FBI investigation called Operation Birdcage. An undercover officer posed as a drug dealer and sold cocaine and heroin to the guards.
They face a maximum 20-year sentence on each charge and a $250,000 fine if convicted.
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
