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A former Florida Highway Patrol Trooper has pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to distribute narcotics, one count of conspiring to defraud the United States, and one count of possessing firearms and ammunition while an unlawful user of controlled substances.
Joshua Grady Earrey, 45, Jacksonville, faces a combined maximum penalty of 60 years in federal prison on these offenses, including a minimum mandatory sentence of at least five years for the drug distribution conspiracy.
He has agreed to forfeit the firearms and ammunition involved in these offenses.
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According to the plea agreement, while employed as a Florida Highway Patrol Trooper and designated Task Force Officer with the Drug Enforcement Administration, Earrey and a co-conspirator engaged in widespread and extensive corrupt activity from 2017 – 2023.
According to the Department of Justice, these acts included the theft of money and illegal drugs that were seized as evidence during criminal investigations, providing the illegal drugs to others to distribute on his behalf, and extorting or accepting cash payments from drug dealers in exchange for protecting them from arrest by law enforcement.
Earrey and his co-conspirator stole more than 1,000 pounds of marijuana from evidence and covered up the theft by submitting falsified paperwork showing that the drugs had been destroyed.
Earrey, who had an addiction to prescription opiates, also used his corrupt activities to obtain illegal drugs for his own use.
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On one occasion, he traded cases of ammunition that he had diverted from the Florida Highway Patrol to a convicted murderer in exchange for oxycodone.
Despite knowing that his drug addiction made it illegal for him to have firearms and ammunition, Earrey continued to possess these items in violation of federal law.
This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service — Criminal Investigation, with assistance from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
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