WILLIAMSPORT – The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced that Tyrone Wayne Meachem, age 40, was sentenced on November 17, 2021, to 12 months’ imprisonment by United States District Court Chief Judge Matthew W. Brann for possessing buprenorphine in prison.
According to U.S. Attorney John C. Gurganus, in April 2018, Meachem was an inmate at the Federal Correctional Institution, Allenwood (FCI Allenwood), in White Deer, Pennsylvania. On April 7, 2018, Jessika Ann Sanders visited Meachem at FCI Allenwood and gave him a sandwich with three balloons that held 68 Suboxone strips that contained buprenorphine, a controlled substance. Meachem admitted to police investigators that the balloons were hidden in his sandwich. Meachem had agreed to smuggle in the Suboxone to pay off a debt to another inmate.
Jessika Ann Sanders was charged on December 12, 2019, with conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance, distribution of a controlled substance, and providing contraband in prison. Sanders is currently awaiting trial.
The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Drew O. Inman and Assistant U.S. Attorney Geoffrey W. MacArthur prosecuted the case.
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