FBI investigates drug-trafficking ‘epidemic’ in prison also housing Ice detainees: ‘A lot of corruption’
Photograph: Alexandra Buxbaum/Alamy
A private US prison contractor that is expanding its immigrant detention business amid increased Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) arrests is running a federal facility that is being investigated by the FBI for rampant drug trafficking and violence, a Guardian investigation has found.
Even some staff who work for the contractor, CoreCivic, are implicated in drug smuggling at the Cibola county correctional center (CCCC) in New Mexico that is owned and operated by the company on a government contract.
Cibola has faced various problems, including allegations by the FBI of extensive drug smuggling, including involvement by some guards, and an alarming number of deaths at the facility, the Guardian can reveal.