Source: US FBI
Inmate granted clemency on Jan. 17, 2025 reducing 2022 federal prison sentence for drug distribution
BOSTON – A Bridgewater, Mass. woman and a federal inmate have been charged with providing and possessing a controlled substance in the form of a synthetic cannabinoid, also known as “K2,” at the federal prison FMC Devens. The inmate had been granted clemency on Jan. 17, 2025, reducing his 2022 federal prison sentence for drug distribution.
Tasha Hammock, 43, a former employee with the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, is charged by Information with providing contraband to a prison inmate. Raymond Gaines, 45, an inmate at FMC Devens, has been indicted by a federal grand jury with possessing contraband by a prison inmate. In March 2025, Hammock and Gaines were charged by criminal complaint.
According to court documents, on Jan. 25, 2022, Gaines was sentenced to more than seven years in prison after pleading guilty in federal court in Boston to possession with intent to distribute cocaine and possessing a firearm in furtherance of drug trafficking. At the time he committed the offenses, he was on federal supervised release after serving a prison sentence resulting from a 2017 conviction for distributing cocaine base within 1,000 feet of a school. In both prior cases Gaines was alleged to be an associate of the Orchard Park Trailblazers, a street gang in Boston. On Jan. 17, 2025, Gaines received an Executive Grant of Clemency, reducing his current federal sentence to five years in prison.
It is alleged that on Aug. 18, 2024, Hammock, while visiting Gaines in the prison, surreptitiously passed K2-laced papers to Gaines, which he pocketed. At the time, Hammock was employed with the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection. Hammock also allegedly previously handled money connected with the distribution of K2 to Gaines in FMC Devens and she allegedly received K2 at her residence for distribution into the prison. Court records allege that law enforcement obtained a cellphone that had been smuggled to an inmate in the prison (“Inmate A”). In September 2023, Inmate A allegedly sent messages on the cell phone to another person (“Person 1”), discussing obtaining K2 in prison. Inmate A allegedly told Person 1 that the drugs could be delivered to a particular address in Bridgewater – later determined to be Hammock’s residence – and that Inmate A’s “co” would arrange for the drugs to be brought into the prison from there.
As described in court documents, K2 presents a health problem at FMC Devens, where inmates have become sick from smoking paper believed to contain K2, as well as prison staff who have been exposed to the secondary smoke.
The charges of providing a prohibited object to a prison inmate, and receiving a prohibited object by a prison inmate, each carry a penalty of up to 10 years in prison, up to three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000. Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and statutes which govern the determination of a sentence in a criminal case.
United States Attorney Leah B. Foley; Ted E. Docks, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston; and Ryan Geach, Special Agent in Charge of the Northeast Regional Office of DOJ-OIG, made the announcement today. Valuable assistance was provided by the Special Investigative Services Unit at FMC Devens. Assistant U.S. Attorney Brendan O’Shea of the Worcester Branch Office is prosecuting the case.
The details contained in the charging documents are allegations. The defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.