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Essex County Correctional Officer Took Bribes To Smuggle Contraband To Inmates: Feds
A 36-year-old Jersey City resident and former Essex County correctional officer admitted on Wednesday, July 17, to accepting $14,000 in bribes to smuggle in tobacco and a cell phone to inmates, authorities said.
In January 2023, Efrin Wade, who worked at the jail for three years, began communicating with an individual whom he believed was seeking to smuggle in contraband to sell to other inmates, U.S. Attorney Philip Sellinger said.
The individual was actually an undercover FBI agent, Sellinger said. Wade agreed to smuggle in tobacco and cell phones, prohibited for inmates at the facil…
Essex Jail Officer, GF Stung By FBI In Scheme To Smuggle In Tobacco, Cell Phones: Feds
A corrections officer and his girlfriend were busted for smuggling tobacco and cellphones into the Essex County Jail from a source who turned out to be an undercover FBI agent, federal authorities said.
Efrin Wade, 34, and Yairisa Lizardo, 29, both of Jersey City, accepted $14,000 for the illegal acts and apparently were counting on another $30,000 when they were busted, U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Philip Sellinger said following their arrests on Tuesday, March 14.
Wade, who’d worked as a corrections officer at the Essex County Correctional Facility (ECCF) in Newark since February 2020, be…
