Long Beach man becomes 16th person convicted of drug conspiracy in prison

GULFPORT, Miss. (WLOX) – On Wednesday, officials announced that 47-year-old Johnson Tran was sentenced to 99 months in prison for conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute.

According to court documents, the case began in 2018 after DEA agents received information from the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) that drug-laced letters and greeting cards were being sent to inmates from the Southern District of Mississippi.

Letters and cards were intercepted in prisons in Illinois, South Carolina, Florida, Indiana, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

DEA and BOP officials discovered that inmates were ordering letters and cards from Tran through prison email accounts and phone calls to the prison. Orders were typically placed using coded language.

The letters and greeting cards were laced with FUB-AMB and 5F-MDMB-PICA, which are Schedule I controlled substances and synthetic cannabinoids. Many of them were mailed in Gulfport, and Tran’s base of operations was in Harrison County.

Agents also checked Tran’s financial records and discovered that he was compensated for the letters by U.S. Treasury Department checks drawn from inmates’ prison accounts and/or peer-to-peer money transfers from employees or family members of the inmates. If Tran’s employees received money on his behalf, he would give them a cut.

In addition to Tran, fifteen others have already been convicted in this case:

• Chaze Lowery and William Hernandez previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering.
• Jermaine Jones pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute.
• Jorge Pena, Trae Short, Bobby Huneycutt, Clarence Plato, Ryan Dougas, Saloman Ayala, Stanley Spriggs, Corderius Trammell, Jonathan Estrada, Marcus Thames and Allen Butler all pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit a crime against the U.S. by conspiring vowing to introduce contraband into a federal correctional facility.
• Ryan Schmittaur pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess a controlled substance with intent to distribute.

A 17th defendant, Ashley Magee, pleaded guilty to operating an unlicensed money transmitter by accepting and transferring money on behalf of Tran and the inmates. Her sentencing is scheduled for January 7, 2025.

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