Jersey City Man Sentenced For Prison Contraband Scheme

JERSEY CITY, NJ — A Jersey City man was sentenced to 43 months in prison for his part in a scheme that smuggled contraband into the Fort Dix correctional facility.

Jason Arteaga-Loayza, aka “Juice,” 30, of Jersey City, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to defraud the U.S. Bureau of Prisons and one count of possession of heroin and fentanyl with the intent to distribute. Arteaga-Loayza was on federal supervised release at the time of the offenses, he also pleaded guilty to violating his supervised release.

Three other men, Adrian Goolcharran, aka “Adrian Ahoda,” aka “Adrian Ajoda,” aka “Adrian Ajodha,” Nicolo Denichilo, and Johansel Moronta also have been charged with using drones to smuggle contraband into Fort Dix prison.

Between June 2017 to September 2018, Arteaga-Loayza was an inmate in Fort Dix prison and participated in multiple drone deliveries of contraband. The drones would fly over Fort Dix and drop packages of contraband into the prison, where it was sold to inmates for a profit, according to the Department of Justice, of DOJ. The packages that Arteaga-Loayza smuggled in included cell phones, cell phone accessories, tobacco, weight-loss supplements, eyeglasses, and various other items. Arteaga-Loayza, with Moronta’s assistance inside of the prison, took inmate requests for specific items of contraband and oversaw the collection of payments. Arteaga-Loayza also collected contraband for upcoming drone drops and stored it at his residence in Jersey City.

Arteaga-Loayza and his conspirators took various steps to prevent BOP officials from detecting and intercepting the contraband. They planned drone drops during the late evening hours or at night, when the drones were less likely to be seen. They flew the drones from concealed positions in the woods surrounding the prison. The lights on the drones were covered with tape to make it more difficult for prison officials to spot them.

Arteaga-Loayza and his conspirators used cell phones, including contraband phones concealed within the prison, to coordinate the drone drops. During a search of Arteaga-Loayza’s residence in June 2019, agents found packages of empty cell phone boxes, including a package with empty cell phone boxes that had been shipped to Arteaga-Loayza the day before a drone drop on Oct. 30, 2018, cell phone chargers, empty boxes of SIM cards, and several cell phones. They also found bags of Bugler tobacco, consistent with the Bugler tobacco recovered in earlier drone drops.