A former Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) officer will spend a long time behind bars after admitting to swapping bricks of cocaine with 3D-printed decoys.
As the Associated Press reports, former Jacksonville-area sheriff’s sergeant and ex-DEA agent James Hickox has been sentenced to at least 17 years in prison after pleading guilty to not only stealing drugs and cash seized during the course of his duties, but also replacing them with fake decoys he made using a 3D printer.
Hickox Admitted to Stealing More Than $420K Worth of Drugs
Hickox, 38, admitted as part of his plea deal that he’d bagged more than $420,000 for cannabis, cocaine, and other drugs he stole from his employers. After stealing the contraband, Hickox would often claim that the narcotics had been destroyed during normal police procedure, though he eventually changed his story and started making 3D-printed decoy drugs.
During a search at Hickox’s house following the corrupt cop’s arrest in 2023 alongside a state trooper and more than 20 others involved in the scheme, authorities found a bunch of narcotics and guns he’d stolen from work. Over the door to his converted garage, a sign reading “Gator Man’s Cave” signaled visitors that they’d arrived at the DEA agent’s drug den, the AP noted.
Hickox’s ‘Breaking Bad’ Claim
As News4Jax reports, in a story inspired by Breaking Bad‘s Walter White, the former Nassau County Sheriff’s Office sergeant claimed in court that he chose to start stealing drugs from work and selling them because he’d been diagnosed with cancer and wanted to be able to provide for his family after he was gone.
However, Wendy Berger, the US district court judge who presided over the case wasn’t convinced. “I recognize the cancer diagnosis and health issues, but I don’t see how that causes an individual to engage in what you did,” the federal judge said. “I’m having a hard time with that.”
Along with the charges related to stealing drugs and “defrauding the United States,” part of Hickox’s sentence relates to tax evasion because, as the Internal Revenue Service noted, he didn’t report the money he stole.
