Date: April 8, 2024 Contact: newsroom@ci.irs.gov Jacksonville, FL — United States Attorney Roger B. Handberg announces that Joshua Grady Earrey of Jacksonville, 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. Earrey faces a combined maximum penalty of 60 years in federal prison on these offenses, including a minimum mandatory sentence of at least 5 years for the drug distribution conspiracy. He has further agreed to forfeit the firearms and ammunition involved in these offenses. 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. These corrupt 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. 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 Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation (CI) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, with assistance from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection. It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney William S. Hamilton. The United States Attorney’s Office, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation, and United States Customs and Border Protection wish to thank the Florida Highway Patrol and the Drug Enforcement Administration for their cooperation during this investigation. CI is the criminal investigative arm of the IRS, responsible for conducting financial crime investigations, including tax fraud, narcotics trafficking, money-laundering, public corruption, healthcare fraud, identity theft and more. CI special agents are the only federal law enforcement agents with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code, obtaining a more than a 90 percent federal conviction rate. The agency has 20 field offices located across the U.S. and 12 attaché posts abroad.
