Ex-Prison Guard Marc Buckner Pleads Guilty to Smuggling Tobacco

A former federal prison guard has admitted to selling access to contraband from inside one of the nation’s most notorious lockups. Marc Buckner, 47, of Kansas City, Kan., pleaded guilty Monday to accepting bribes in exchange for smuggling tobacco into Leavenworth Penitentiary, Acting U.S. Attorney Tom Beall announced.

Buckner, once trusted to uphold federal prison rules, instead exploited his position for years, slipping tobacco and rolling papers past security checks by hiding them in homemade shoe insoles. Each delivery—often just one or two times a month—earned him $750 in cash from inmates desperate for Bugler brand tobacco, court records show.

The scheme ran undetected for years, a testament to Buckner’s brazenness and the vulnerabilities within the prison’s internal checks. As a public official, his betrayal of duty carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in federal prison, a sentence to be determined at a later date.

In his plea agreement, Buckner admitted to accepting payments regularly while working as a correctional officer at the high-security facility. The illegal deliveries weren’t isolated incidents—they formed a steady black-market pipeline that undermined prison safety and discipline.

The FBI’s investigation peeled back layers of corruption, ultimately catching Buckner in a net of evidence that left no room for denial. Acting U.S. Attorney Beall credited the FBI’s persistent fieldwork and Assistant U.S. Attorney Jabari Wamble’s prosecution strategy for cracking the case.

Buckner now awaits sentencing, stripped of his badge and facing the very system he once served. His fall underscores a grim truth: when guards become gatekeepers for contraband, the walls meant to contain crime start to crumble from within.