Racketeering charges have been filed against ten Pennsylvania and Arizona residents following a multi-year investigation into a contraband operation inside the Cambria County Prison.
A federal grand jury indictment was unsealed on Monday, revealing the accusations filed against inmates and prison staff accused of bringing illegal substances into the jail and trafficking them to other convicts.
Those named by the grand jury include:
- Lakesha Stith, 45, of Johnstown, Pa.;
- Ashley Aguilar, 26, of Phoenix, Ariz.;
- Mikal Davis, 48, incarcerated at Indiana County Jail;
- James Johnson-Ross, 26, of Altoona, Pa.;
- Marcos Monarrez Jr., 26, incarcerated at FDC Philadelphia;
- Jessica Niebauer, 34, of Altoona, Pa;
- Monique Valencia, 29, of Phoenix, Ariz.;
- Blake Young, 36, incarcerated at SCI Laurel Highlands;
- Asiah Young-Atwell, 30, of Johnstown, Pa.;
- and Carlos Zamora, 29, incarcerated at Northeast Ohio Correctional Center.
According to court records, beginning in July 2023, Stith, a correctional officer, and Young-Atwell, a nurse, both employed at Cambria County Prison, accepted bribes from inmates Davis, Johnson-Ross, Monarrez, Young, and Zamora in exchange for smuggling contraband into the facility. The grand jury alleges that the contraband included cell phones, K2, suboxone, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), security gadgets, and cigarettes.
The two staffers allegedly hid the contraband in their lunch bags to smuggle it through the prison’s screening system, using private exam rooms in the medical department and multiple prearranged stash spots in storage closets for convicts to obtain the items.
The inmates would then use cell phones to arrange the smuggling and trafficking of the contraband. Aguilar, Niebauer, and Valencia have been accused of assisting contraband trafficking from outside the prison.
It is alleged that the offenders and co-conspirators sold the phones and other contraband for $10,000 for each mobile phone and $75 to $250 for every Suboxone strip.
The grand jury also discovered evidence that Young-Atwell and Stith had personal relationships with the convicts and would warn them before a cell search, as well as other detainees supplying information to the prison administration about contraband.
Each named defendant is facing accusations for suspected bribery, conspiracy, money laundering, and narcotics trafficking.