4/28/14 Confidential informant who faked drug buys gets 18 months in prison

  • By Nick Sabo
  • April 28, 2014
  • 494
                        
SUMMARY: Ordered to pay $1,220 restitution to sheriff's office A Big Prairie man who faked drug buys and pocketed the money while working as a confidential informant was sentenced to prison Monday April 28. Joshua L. Jones, 30, 7911 state Route 514, was sentenced by Holmes County Common Pleas Judge Robert D. Rinfret to 18 months in prison on three counts of tampering with evidence. The charges against Jones stem from May, 2013, when Jones was working as a confidential informant for the Holmes County Sheriff’s drug enforcement unit, arranging and making drug buys. According to court records, Jones told sheriff’s deputies that he could purchase drugs for a set amount and would be given money. Jones would return with non-controlled substances that he passed off as Oxycotin or Oxycodone, pocketing the money. The deception was discovered after the drugs were sent away for tests and came back as counterfeit. Suspects, as well as other confidential informants, also provided information that confirmed Jones had not purchased drugs. Jones’s work as a confidential informant was part of a larger, undercover drug enforcement operation that ended in a round-up of suspects in August, 2013. Prosecutors dismissed charges brought in the round-up against two men due to Jones’s involvement with the alleged buys. Prosecuting Attorney Steve Knowling said several other defendants arrested in the drug round-up received “reduced plea offers they would not have got” had it not been for Jones’ actions. Rinfret said Jones was working as an informant in exchange for a promise that he would not go to prison on other, unrelated charges. “You worked for the sheriff’s office to avoid prison but you turned it around, you went the other way,” Rinfret said. In addition to prison time, Rinfret ordered Jones to pay $1,220 in restitution to the sheriff’s office for the stolen buy money.


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