9 arrested in federal investigation into drug trafficking at New Mexico prison

MILAN, N.M. — Nine people were arrested this week in connection with a suspected drug trafficking operation at a federal prison in a small New Mexico town, authorities announced Friday.

The arrests were made Wednesday as the FBI and U.S. Marshals Service raided 13 homes across the northwestern part of the state, mostly in Albuquerque, New Mexico's largest city.

Among those arrested were two people currently incarcerated at the Cibola County Correctional Center in Milan, an hour’s drive west of Albuquerque. Around 750 people, including some held on immigration detainers, are incarcerated at the private prison.

Authorities in a news release announcing the arrests described the drug-dealing operation as a “significant drug trafficking network" that extended beyond the walls of the minimum-security prison, to include inmates' spouses, family members and associates.

Recently, corrections officers found inside the prison more than 1,000 fentanyl pills, heroin and methamphetamine, according to a copy of the federal government's application to search the 13 homes this week. Authorities said they confiscated 15 firearms, ammunition, fentanyl, methamphetamine and thousands of dollars during the searches.

“The Department of Justice will not tolerate the exploitation of addiction for profit in our correctional facilities,” Alexander Uballez, the U.S. attorney in New Mexico, said in a statement.