A former Hall County jailer has been charged with taking bribes to smuggle cocaine to inmates.
Austin Herring, 19, of Murrayville, was arrested on Feb. 20 and arraigned on March 16 on federal charges of accepting bribes and conspiring to possess with intent to distribute cocaine.
He was indicted by a federal grand jury on March 3.
Herring on two occasions in February was paid $500 to take a package he was told contained cocaine to an inmate inside the jail, according to acting U.S. attorney John Horn and the charges. Herring was told by the person who gave it to him that the package contained cocaine from Mexico. Herring did not open or tamper with either package.
After Herring delivered each package to an inmate who was cooperating with authorities, the inmate gave the package to investigators.
Neither package contained a controlled substance.
“This former corrections officer allegedly accepted bribes on two occasions to smuggle what he believed to be cocaine into the Hall County Jail,” Horn said. “We are committed to doing what we can to eradicate drugs and other contraband from jails.”
The case was investigated by the FBI with assistance from the North Georgia Major Offenders Task Force and the Hall County sheriff’s office.
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