Two Florida law enforcement officials who were represented in support of the Drug Enforcement Office worked together to steal drugs from evidence to sale, prosecutors said.
Joshua Alley, a former Florida Highway Patrol state trooper in Jacksonville, is currently sentenced to nine years in prison, according to court records. His accused conspirator, the sheriff’s deputies, went to prison for 17 years, McClatchy News reported earlier.
McClatchy News contacted Earrey’s attorney on Monday but did not receive a response immediately.
According to the US Lawyer’s Office for the Central District of Florida, Alley pleaded guilty in April 2024 to accusing him of conspiracy to distribute drugs, conspiracy to fraud the United States and conspiracy to possess firearms and ammunition.
In addition to working with SGT at the time. James Hickox has been accused of accepting at least $20,000 in bribes to help drug dealers avoid arrests to steal and sell drugs from the storage of evidence.
Steal from evidence
Hickox was a deputy of the Nassau County Sheriff’s Office, according to prosecutors.
The document shows that both were also officers of the DEA task force.
The pair cooperates with searching for cargo cargo, storage units and vehicles to confiscate drugs, especially targeting marijuana, and are stored locally rather than sent to the DEA, officials said.
“Aly and his co-conspirators stole more than 1,000 pounds of marijuana from evidence and concealed the theft by submitting fake documents indicating that the drug had been destroyed,” according to the U.S. Lawyer’s Office.
They also aimed to steal cocaine and fentanyl, and in one case they staged traffic stops with photos to get fentanyl, which turned out to be another drug, prosecutors said.
In another example in August 2022, Ally worked on an investigation into the DEA, which ended up with an officer confiscating a cocaine brick weighing about a kilogram, prosecutors said.
Earrey recorded his weight, and Hickox told him how to replace real cocaine bricks with fake bricks and sell real bricks.
Hickox said he would give Earrey a 3D printed “cocaine brick” he had made in advance, shattering real cocaine and selling the story.
Since the real cocaine was destined for destruction in the DEA lab, Earrey checked it out of evidence under the guise of transporting it to the lab, and then he made a swap, according to investigators.
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Early handed Hicox the real cocaine. Hickox provided it to the accused drug dealer to sell it, earning about $20,000, officials said.
Cash theft
The pair are also accused of stealing cash they earned while searching for jobs and swiping $15,000 and another $4,000 at another time, the documents show.
Authorities say they deposited money in advance and forged the signatures of the two federal officers, and underreported the amount they seized.
Earrey purchased Oxycodone using drug theft and cash theft scheme. This is an addiction that began when he underwent serious surgery, authorities said.
“The defendant purchased pills in cash from his illegal activities, including cash he stole from law enforcement seizures and cash he received from the sale of controlled substances stolen from law enforcement seizures,” the prosecutor wrote in the judicial agreement.
Investigators said multiple times that Alley gave the accused firearm ammunition from the workplace and marijuana in exchange for oxycodone.
Earrey’s substance abuse disqualified him from owning a gun, leading to criminal charges, authorities said.
If you or a loved one shows signs of a substance use disorder, you can ask for help by calling a national hotline at 1-800-662-4357.
