The investigation centered around two prison employees accused of smuggling tobacco into the prison in exchange for money.
TRENTON - The end to a large-scale tobacco smuggling operation that involved inmates, New Jersey State prison employees and outside civilians, came with a single payment, an investigator told jurors Thursday.
Raphael Dolce, an investigator with the New Jersey Department of Corrections, recalled the beginnings of the investigation at the first day of a trial for Keith Harris, one of the two New Jersey State prison employees who was arrested in connection with the smuggling operation.
Harris, a trade technician at the prison, was indicted in the fall of 2014 on multiple counts of official misconduct.
He joined 19 others who were indicted that October in connection with the operation, which investigators said included Harris and Corrections Officer Eric Dawson smuggling tobacco into the prison in exchange for bribes from inmates and inmates' families and friends.
Dolce explained how the investigation came to fruition in March, 2013, only a few months after New Jersey banned tobacco in state prisons. The ban prompted prisoners to treat cigarettes and tobacco as a precious commodity, Dolce said.
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"The underground market was in swing," even before the ban started, he said, adding that investigators did not initially know how inmates were still getting tobacco after the ban.
Their investigation led them to question Dawson, who admitted to receiving a $1,000 wire transfer payment from a man named Lorenzo Blakeney, Dolce said. Blakeney was a regular visitor of an inmate at the State Prison.
Dolce said as soon as they saw the connection between Dawson, Blakeney and the inmate, they searched Blakeney's home and gathered records of outgoing phone calls made by the inmate.
During his testimony, Dolce only brushed the surface of the investigation, which resulted in the arrests of multiple inmates, prison employees and civilians.
Two other women were accused of making cash transactions as part of the smuggling ring and Blakeney was charged with bribery during the investigation.
But Dawson also took the stand as part of a plea deal offered by prosecutors.
When questioned by Harris's defense attorney, Dawson said he did tell investigators that he brought tobacco into the prison in exchange for money. However, he said he never implicated Harris in the crime and that he has never claimed to be linked to Harris.
Anna Merriman may be reached at amerriman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @anna_merriman Find The Times of Trenton on Facebook.