A former Missouri state prison employee admitted to smuggling drugs and knives into the facility. Steven M. Reminger, 53, entered a guilty plea in the U.S. District Court in St. Louis, confessing to charges of conspiracy to distribute controlled substances and attempting to possess with the intent to distribute them.
Reminger worked as an electronics technician at the Eastern Reception Diagnostic and Correctional Center in Bonne Terre, Missouri, when the illicit activities occurred. Reports from inmates, following several drug overdoses inside the prison, led officials to Reminger. An inmate disclosed to a Missouri Department of Corrections investigator that Reminger was receiving drugs through a Post Office box in Farmington, Missouri, registered under a fake name.
The U.S. Postal Inspection Service inspector discovered that Reminger acquired the Post Office box on November 8, 2021, and retrieved around 12 packages from November 13, 2021, to May 24, 2022. After he collected the last package on May 25, 2022, postal inspectors interviewed him at a police station. Inspectors found $4,000 in cash and fentanyl, methamphetamine, heroin, K2, THC edibles, marijuana, knives, and cell phones in four vacuum-sealed packages. Reminger stated that the $4,000 was his payment for bringing the packages into the facility. He acknowledged the possibility that the packages contributed to overdoses but claimed ignorance about their contents, saying he was "deliberately ignorant."
Reminger disclosed earning no more than $50,000 from the operation and handed over $15,000 cash to investigators, with some of the remaining funds used to purchase a dune buggy and two trailers.
Sentencing is set for July 24, with each charge carrying a potential penalty of up to 20 years in prison, a $1 million fine, or both. The case is under investigation by the Missouri Department of Corrections Office of Professional Standards, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and the Missouri State Highway Patrol. Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Rebar is leading the prosecution.
