Former Massachusetts state worker charged with smuggling K2 to federal inmate

A former worker with the Massachusetts Division of Environmental Safety has been accused of smuggling K2-laced papers to a federal inmate.

Bridgewater girl Tasha Hammock, 43, is being charged with offering contraband to FMC Devens inmate Raymond Gaines, 45 — who had been granted clemency by President Joe Biden within the remaining days of his time period in January.

Gaines, whose 2022 federal jail sentence for drug distribution had been reduce, has now been indicted by a federal grand jury with possessing contraband by a jail inmate.

K2, an artificial cannabinoid, has been a reported well being downside at FMC Devens and different amenities. Inmates have change into sick from smoking paper believed to comprise K2, in addition to jail employees who’ve been uncovered to the secondary smoke.

Hammock was a program coordinator with MassDEP, the place she took residence greater than $84,000 in 2023, in keeping with state payroll data.

In response to the feds, Hammock was visiting Gaines within the jail final Aug. 18 when she “surreptitiously passed K2-laced papers to Gaines, which he pocketed.”

Hammock additionally allegedly beforehand dealt with cash linked with the distribution of K2 to Gaines in FMC Devens, and she or he allegedly obtained K2 at her residence for distribution into the jail.

Courtroom data allege that regulation enforcement obtained a cellphone that had been smuggled to an inmate within the jail (“Inmate A”).

In September 2023, Inmate A allegedly despatched messages on the cellular phone to a different individual (“Person 1”), discussing acquiring K2 in jail.

Inmate A allegedly advised Particular person 1 that the medication may very well be delivered to a specific deal with in Bridgewater — later decided to be Hammock’s residence — and that Inmate A’s “co” would prepare for the medication to be introduced into the jail from there.