Incarcerated podcaster Taxstone has been hit with new criminal charges due to his alleged involvement in a drug smuggling ring at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center.
Taxstone, born Daryl Campbell, and four other inmates have been charged with conspiracy to smuggle contraband into the notorious federal facility, which has come under fire for its poor living conditions and incessant acts of violence among inmates.
In an announcement on Thursday (March 6), the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Eastern District of New York alleged that Campbell and his accomplices, Ian Diez, Jonathan Guerrero, Abel Mora, and Mayovanex Rodriguez, plotted to bring in several illegal items, including drugs and weapons.
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Authorities at the prison discovered a box containing suboxone, marijuana, a scalpel, a phone charger, cigarettes, and lighters left outside of the facility and attached to a bedsheet hanging out of recreation room window.
The contraband was allegedly intended to be pulled into the prison and retrieved by Campbell’s accomplices, at his behest. He is accused of devising the scheme using a contraband cell phone, from which authorities recovered several recordings of the Brooklyn native detailing the plot.
A sign is posted outside the Metropolitan Detention Center on February 4, 2019 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. Power has been fully restored to the prison after inmates suffered the past week without heat and access to televisions, computers or telephones. On Monday morning, the facility received a bomb threat following a weekend of protests.
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“These actions undermine the order and security of MDC-Brooklyn and endanger everyone within its walls,” John J. Durham, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said in a statement on Thursday.
“These charges serve as a warning to those who would engage in criminal conduct behind bars, and anyone else who facilitates those crimes: your conduct will be uncovered, and you will be held accountable,” Durham added.
At the time of the alleged conspiracy, Campbell was incarcerated at the Brooklyn Metropolitan Detention Center on charges relating to the infamous 2016 Irving Plaza shooting.
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Campbell was implicated and ultimately found guilty of the shooting, which left one man dead and multiple people injured, including rapper Troy Ave, whom Campbell had been embroiled in a war of words with on social media and elsewhere prior to the incident.
In 2023, Campbell was sentenced to 35 years for his role in the death of Ronald “Banga” McPhatter, Troy Ave’s bodyguard, and faces a maximum sentence of 10 additional years in prison if found guilty of the prison contraband charge.
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