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Vincent McCandless Sr., 35, who was already serving four and a half to 10 years in state prison at the time of his arrest, will add an additional 35 to 70 months to his sentence, according to the Bucks County District Attorney's office.
Authorities allege that Joseph J. Jennings, 32, of Warminster smuggled Suboxone into the Doylestown jail on multiple occasions between October 2018 and July 2019 while working as a guard assigned to the restrictive housing unit, according to an affidavit presented by the Bucks County Detectives Drug Strike Force and Bucks County Correctional Facility Investigators.
Jennings reportedly provided the drugs to McCandless Sr., who then sold the drugs to other inmates in the jail, the DA's office said.
Jennings was provided with the Suboxone from McCandless’s juvenile son and Joseph Robert Wilson, 40, of Philadelphia, authorities said.
Inmates allegedly paid for the drugs by asking family members to wire money to Wilson, or deposit funds into McCandless’s prison commissary account, the DA's office said.
Wilson and Travis Davies, 33 of Levittown, previously pleaded guilty for their roles in the ring, and McCandless’s son was adjudicated delinquent earlier this year, authorities said.
Five others charged in the ring have pre-trial hearings scheduled for next month. The men are Jennings; Joseph Korhan, 48; Richard Dzielinski, 41, of Philadelphia; Robert Monacelli, 28, of Falls Township; and Jonathan King, 31, of Wilkes Barre.
This case was investigated by the Bucks County Detectives Drug Strike Force and Bucks County Correctional Facility Investigators. Agents of the Pennsylvania Parole Board, as well as the Philadelphia Police Department’s Intensive Drug Investigation Squad and PPD 26th District Violence Reduction Unit, assisted in the investigation.
The case is being prosecuted by Deputy District Attorney Mary Kate Kohler.
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