The United States Attorney’s Office for D.C. charged six members of an alleged conspiracy to smuggle drugs, weapons, and other contraband hidden in Tupperware containers filled with food into the DC Jail. A grand jury indictment was unsealed this week.
According to the investigation completed by the Department of Corrections and the FBI, the co-conspiracy smuggled drugs, weapons, and cellphones into the facility between February and July 2024. The indictment implicates two corrections officers—Rashaad Roper and an unnamed officer—along with three men who are incarcerated in the jail and two civilians.
On Feb. 18, Darius Robertson, an inmate in the NW-1 cellblock of the Central Detention Facility, made a recorded call from the jail to his girlfriend, Kiya Holland. He asked her if she was on her way to the jail.
“Yea, I’m about to leave out the house … too much … this is too much,” Holland replied. “Like this some greedy [expletive] right here.”
“I mean but it’s two bowls though baby,” Robertson said, later reminding her to leave the Tupperware with Roper.
Surveillance video footages captures Kiya Holland dropping off Tupperware containing contraband at the DC Jail. Photo courtesy of the United States Attorney’s Office.
Holland then went to the staff entrance of the jail and dropped off a white bag packed with Tupperware containers, and promptly left, according to the indictment. Roper came by a few moments later.
Roper attempted to walk around an X-ray machine, but was stopped by another correctional officer working in the screening room, the indictment says. Roper ran the bag through the machine, but “no correctional officer at the time was monitoring the machine as the bag passed through.” Roper then walked around the magnetometer and took the Tupperware into the employee locker room.
Roper later allegedly distributed the contents to Robertson and fellow DOC resident Marcel Vines.
Surveillance video captures Officer Rashaad Roper distributing contraband to men incarcerated on the NW-1 cellblock of the Central Detention Facility. Photos courtesy of the United States Attorney’s Office for D.C.
Ten days later, they tried it again. But this time, investigators were ready. After Holland dropped another bag at the jail’s staff entrance, investigators intercepted it before Roper could pick it up.
Inside the bag, they found two Tupperware containers with a switchblade knife, an iPhone and charger, two pairs of glasses, bundles of cannabis and tobacco, rolling papers, gambling dice, three sheets of damp paper that “emitted a chemical odor,” and plastic-wrapped packages containing 100 cigarettes, all hidden in the food.
When Roper couldn’t find the bag, he returned to the cellblock empty-handed and told Robertson the bag was missing. Robertson then called Holland to confirm that she had left it where he had instructed her to.
DOC put Roper on administrative leave on Feb. 29, and later placed him on enforced leave without pay.
Officer Roper’s own body camera captured his alleged smuggling of contraband into the DC Jail. Photo courtesy of the United States Attorney’s Office for D.C.
In June, Robertson made another call to Holland and a friend of theirs, Latara Brown. He told them about the new corrections officer he recruited to help with their smuggling operation.
“Alright, he gonna be a big [slur] with a bald head, Slim. You hear me?” Robertson said, describing the officer, who is identified in the indictment as “co-conspirator-1.”
Brown met the officer in her car 10 minutes later, a few blocks away from the jail, handing him a blue bag with a Tupperware container. The officer brought the bag and container back to the jail, sent the Tupperware through an X-ray machine, and continued into the jail without issue, according to the indictment. He then gave the bowl to Stefon Freshley, who was incarcerated in the jail.
Twice more in July, the officer met Brown and Holland near the jail to pick up packages of contraband that he brought to jail to give to Robertson, Freshley, Vines, and a fourth unnamed prisoner. Each time, the items were packaged differently and passed through X-ray screening without raising any alarms.
DOC investigators found drugs and tobacco during a search of the NW-1 cellblock. Photos courtesy of the United States Attorney’s Office for D.C.
On July 25, DOC’s internal investigators searched NW-1 cellblock and found more than 200 blue pills, 60 cigarettes, and strips of paper soaked in Buprenorphine, along with cellphones and cigarettes. DOC subsequently fired the unnamed officer.
The indictment comes as DOC is dealing with a rash of stabbings and drug overdose deaths of people in its custody. Six people died in DOC custody so far this year, including three people in the span of two weeks in May. At least four of the six deaths were caused by accidental drug overdoses, according to the D.C. Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. In a single week in September, DOC reported three separate “inmate-on-inmate assaults,” including one stabbing incident where two men were taken to the hospital.
And last year, City Paper reported on a lawsuit filed by Anthony Hardy, who was attacked three separate times by the same man with jail-made weapons.
“These charges should serve as a stark reminder to our staff, contractors, residents, and visitors of our zero-tolerance policy regarding the introduction and distribution of contraband…” DOC Director Tom Faust said in an emailed statement to CityPaper. “We will continue to be vigilant and relentless in detecting and intercepting contraband to ensure our environment remains safe and secure.”
U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly signed a warrant for Roper’s arrest on Nov. 19, which federal agents executed later that day. Authorities also arrested Brown and Holland the same day. Roper was released pending trial.
All six defendants in the case face charges of conspiracy and either providing or possessing contraband in jail, depending on their level of involvement, carrying maximum sentences of five years and 20 years in prison, respectively.
Roper’s attorney, Stellano Simmons, declined to comment on the case.
“We look forward to trying this case in the court of law, not in the court of public opinion,” Simmons said.