FBI agents hunt for smuggled gun in New York City jail
A firearm may have been smuggled into the Brooklyn federal jail complex that houses a number of high-profile criminals, including convicted sex predators Ghislaine Maxwell and R. Kelly.
Officers have been scouring the troubled lockup for the gun for nearly a week, but it has yet to turn up, the federal Bureau of Prisons confirmed Monday.
The agency said it received “critical information” on June 7 that a firearm may have been “introduced” to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Sunset Park.
“The BOP immediately placed the facility on modified operations status in order to protect the public, staff, and inmates until a comprehensive search could be completed,” agency spokesperson Scott Taylor said in a statement.
The search was ongoing as of Monday afternoon.
Inmates were still being produced for court appearances and attorneys continued to be allowed to visit their clients during the hunt for the piece last week.
The jail has seen a number of troubling incidents in recent years, including the heat in the facility failing for days in 2019 because of a partial power outage, leaving more than 1,000 inmates locked in freezing cells.
In June 2020, an inmate at the MDC died after jail officers pepper sprayed him, an agency spokesperson said at the time.
The inmate, Jamel Floyd, 35, had allegedly smashed his cell window before he was confronted by the jail guards.
Maxwell, who is scheduled to be sentenced later this month, repeatedly complained about conditions in the lockup to the judge who presided over her sex trafficking trial in Manhattan federal court.
The disgraced socialite, who was found guilty of grooming young girls to be sexually abused by late financier Jeffrey Epstein, claimed she was physically abused during a pat-down search and forced to use the bathroom while sitting “knee-to-knee” with a jail guard.
Kelly, who will be sentenced the day after Maxwell on June 29, has been housed in the lockup since his transfer from Chicago in June 2021.
The fallen R&B superstar faces life in prison after his conviction on nine counts, including racketeering conspiracy.
