Ex-Florida Highway Patrol Trooper / DEA Officer gets prison time for stealing and dealing drugs on the job

(Cover photo: Joshua Earrey, pictured in 2009 during his Trooper days with the Florida Highway Patrol. Image credit: FHP)

On April 23 in a Jacksonville courtroom, U.S. District Judge Wendy W. Berger sentenced 46-year-old Joshua Grady Earrey to nine years in federal prison for multiple federal offenses that included:

• 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 addicted to illegal narcotics.

As part of the sentence, Earrey also agreed to forfeit or abandon the money, firearms, and ammunition involved in these offenses. He entered a guilty plea on April 4, 2024.  Initially, Earrey was looking at a combined maximum penalty of 60 years in federal prison for those offenses.

Making his story even more disconcerting, Earrey is a former and once well-respected law enforcement official out of Florida with 22 years on the job who struggled with his own drug addiction demons.

Background:  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 extensive corrupt activity from 2021-2023. These acts included the theft of money and illegal drugs that were seized as evidence during criminal investigations; providing illegal drugs (including fentanyl and cocaine) to others to distribute on their behalf; and providing ammunition to an individual that Earrey knew to be a convicted murderer in exchange for opiates.

Earrey and his co-conspirator stole more than 1,000 pounds of marijuana from evidence and provided the drugs to others to sell on their behalf. They covered up the theft by submitting falsified paperwork showing that the marijuana had been destroyed. Similarly, they stole a kilogram of cocaine from evidence and then gave it to a drug dealer to sell for them.

In addition to illegal drug buys, court documents show that from May 2018 to January 18, 2023, Earrey was provided written 43 legal prescriptions for oxycodone, hydrocodone and extended-release morphine, according to First Coast News. 

“Law enforcement officers who operate as though they are above the law betray the badge and the citizens they swore to protect,” said FBI Jacksonville Acting Special Agent in Charge Hubert Reynolds. “This case exemplifies the FBI’s commitment to holding public servants accountable if they violate the very laws they promised to uphold.”

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida reports that Earrey ‘s case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service — Criminal Investigation, with assistance from U.S. Customs and Border Protection. It was 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 U.S. Customs and Border Protection also thanked the Florida Highway Patrol, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives for their cooperation during this investigation.

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(Source: U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida)

Posted by Richard Webster, Ace News Today
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