The Duval County jail. | Jacksonville Daily Record
Published on April 30, 2024 at 4:51 pm
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A corrections officer is one of 17 people who have been arrested after a six-month investigation into illegal drug trafficking at the Duval County jail.
Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters on Tuesday announced the arrest of corrections officer Kobe Collett, 23, the fifth employee the agency has arrested this year.
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Waters said the investigation, dubbed Operation Snow Globe, began after police received a tip from a confidential informant in October that Collett was smuggling drugs into the jail.
The sheriff did not say what drugs Collett was smuggling, how he was doing it or how long the operation was going on.
As a result of the investigation, Waters said, unspecified security measures have been taken to prevent illegal drugs from entering the jail.
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Collett was stripped of his authority as a correctional officer Oct. 23 and was removed from the jail. He resigned from the Sheriff’s Office after he was taken into custody Monday.
“If you want to come to JSO and your intent is to come here and do something illegal, don’t, because we are gonna find out,” Waters said. “We have the finest men and women, I believe, in the country that work here, and all it does is create more issues for our profession.”
Waters said Collett is charged with three counts of criminal conspiracy, one count of money laundering, one count of introduction and/or possession of contraband into a county detention facility and unlawful compensation or reward for official behavior.
Collett’s sister also was arrested Monday. Waters said Elisha Hughes, 25, benefited from her brother’s drug operation, but he did not specify how.
A Jacksonville public works employee and 14 unidentified inmates also were charged with drug-related crimes as part of the investigation, which included interviews, jail surveillance footage and an examination of financial records, Waters said.
The public works employee was accused of selling illegal drugs to inmates he was overseeing on work crews.
Arrest warrants also have been issued for seven other people in connection with the operation.
The sheriff said inmates’ charges range from trafficking in fentanyl to 13 counts of possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia.
