Federal authorities indicted 13 officers amid allegations that they collaborated with members of the Black Guerrilla Family gang who enjoyed total control over Baltimore City Detention Center -- smuggling drugs, money and cell phones into the jail and engaging in sexual relationships that left four guards pregnant.
The indictment alleges that Tavon "Bulldog" White took control of the prison gang after his arrival in 2009 on an attempted-murder charge, reports The Baltimore Sun. White is accused of building a network of corruption that enabled the smuggling operation and allowed White to manage gang activity in the city.
"This is my jail," White said on an intercepted phone call, according to the indictment. "I'm dead serious. … I make every final call in this jail … and nothing go past me, everything come to me."
White had sexual relationships with prison guards and got four pregnant, prosecutors allege. Two of the guards had his name tattooed on their bodies, according to the indictment. Jail officials made agreements with White in which he would maintain order in exchange for their turning "a blind eye" to his activities.
Related
White is also accused of retaliating against inmates who would not submit to the gang's authority, and cementing relationships with guards by allowing them to use a Mercedes and other cars and giving one a diamond ring.
In a recorded conversation, White said that he made $15,800 in one month selling contraband in jail, and gang members allegedly boasted they could turn $1,000 in profit on an ounce of marijuana.
Stephen E. Vogt, the special agent in charge of the Baltimore FBI office, said that "Tavon White effectively raised the BGF flag over Baltimore City Detention Center."
The indictment names 25 people -- including 13 women working as corrections officers -- who face racketeering and drug charges, twenty of whom also face money-laundering charges. As officials announced allegations to reporters, defendants appeared in federal court across the street, and one of the women went before a judge still wearing her corrections uniform.
