Steven M. Reminger, Smuggling Drugs into Missouri Prison, Missouri 2022

A former employee of the Eastern Reception Diagnostic and Correctional Center in Bonne Terre, Missouri has admitted to smuggling drugs and knives into the prison.

Steven M. Reminger, 53, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in St. Louis to one count of conspiracy to distribute and possess with the intent to distribute controlled substances and one count of attempting to possess with the intent to distribute controlled substances.

The crimes occurred in 2021 and 2022, with Reminger being an electronics technician at the prison at the time.

According to court documents, inmate drug overdoses led to an investigation, during which one inmate told a Missouri Department of Corrections investigator that Reminger was smuggling drugs into the prison. The inmate stated that Reminger had drugs mailed to a Post Office box in Farmington, Missouri under a fake name.

A U.S. Postal Inspection Service inspector learned that Reminger had obtained the Post Office box on November 8, 2021, and received about 12 packages between November 13, 2021, and May 24, 2022.

After Reminger picked up the final parcel on May 25, 2022, Postal Inspectors took him to a police station and interviewed him. They also opened the package, discovering $4,000 in cash as well as fentanyl, methamphetamine, heroin, K2, THC edibles, marijuana, knives and cell phones that were contained in four vacuum-sealed packages.

Reminger said the $4,000 was his pay for bringing the packages into the prison. He acknowledged that it was ‘possible’ the packages he brought in contained something that contributed to the inmate overdoses, but said ‘ignorance is bliss’ and added that he never opened the packages within the parcels or asked what was inside of them.

Reminger admitted being ‘deliberately ignorant’ to the contents of the packages. He said he made no more than $50,000 from the smuggling scheme. He turned over $15,000 in cash that he had at home to investigators.

Reminger is scheduled to be sentenced on July 24. Each charge carries a penalty of up to 20 years in prison, a $1 million fine or both prison and a fine.

Related Federal Cases