Jan. 13—Two people from Pittsburg County were indicted in federal court for being a part of a large-scale drug ring being organized from behind prison walls.
Records show Vincent Berry, 35, an inmate at Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, directed the activities of a drug ring from his cell and solicited the help from a now former prison guard, Jessica Baldwin, 41, of Hartshorne, to smuggle drugs into the prison.
Baldwin was helped by Michael Crawley, 46, of McAlester, and Mateaka Mansker, 31, of Broken Arrow, in obtaining the drugs, according to court records.
All four were indicted in the Northern District of Oklahoma with drug conspiracy with Baldwin, Crawley, and Mansker indicted with additional counts of possession of Fentanyl with intent to distribute and possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute, according to court documents unsealed in federal court.
According to a criminal complaint filed in the case, the investigation began after Baldwin and Crawley were pulled over in McIntosh County in April 2024 and a search of the vehicle found 43 grams of Fentanyl, 218 grams of methamphetamine, 0.81 grams of a Fentanyl/meth mix, 233 grams of marijuana, several other narcotics, a digital scale, and $1,976 in cash.
Baldwin told investigators that she intended to bring the drugs into OSP where she worked and that she and Crawley traveled to Tulsa several times to pick up the drugs from Mansker and made between $400-500 per cylinder of drugs, the complaint states.
Crawley continuously told the investigator had “hit the load of a lifetime,” court records state.
In a separate interview with an agent from the Oklahoma Department of Corrections’ Office of the Inspector General, Baldwin said she was solicited by Berry to bring the contraband into the prison.
ODOC records show Berry is serving a life sentence for murder out of Tulsa County and was an inmate at OSP at the time. He is now currently incarcerated at Lawton Correctional and Rehabilitation.
Text messages extruded from Baldwin’s phone showed she communicated with Mansker about drug pickups and prices, according to the compliant.
Bank statements obtained by investigators showed large deposits and withdrawals from Mansker’s account with “probable cause to believe that Mansker used a portion of this money at Berry’s direction to pay Baldwin the $1,976 seized during Baldwin’s and Crawley’s arrest,” the complaint states.
A trial in the case is currently set for March 3.