3 Indicted For Plotting To Deliver Drugs, Gun To Inmates
TOWSON, Md. (WJZ) – Three men have been indicted for plotting to use drones to fly drugs, tobacco and pornography into a Maryland correctional facility in late August.
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On August 22, police officers spotted two men in a car on a side road next to the Patuxent Institution. After searching the vehicle, they found out that it contained a drone with a remote, multiple pornographic DVDs and large quantities of tobacco and the drug K2.
A semi-automatic pistol was also recovered concealed in the vehicle.
The men inside the vehicle, Thaddeus Casimir Shortz, 25, of Knoxville, and Keith Brian Russell, 29, of Silver Spring, face 39 felony and misdemeanor counts ranging from possession and intent to deliver drugs to possession of a firearm in a drug trafficking crime.
Shortz was arrested without incident and Russell was captured after attempting to flee and hide in a nearby dumpster. Cell phones and walkie-talkies were recovered from both suspects.
Also indicted was Charles Westley Brooks, 43, an inmate at Western Correctional Institution (WCI) in Cumberland.
The seven felony counts against Shortz and Russell each carry a penalty of five to 20 years in prison.