OGDEN — The probe into a drug-trafficking network at the Weber County Jail that came to public light last July with the arrest of a corrections employee has now led to charges against 13 people in all.

Charges were filed last week in 2nd District Court in Ogden against two new suspects, bolstering the total number of people implicated in the matter, while two more who had already been charged face new charges. At least four of the 13 were already Weber County Jail inmates as the probe unfolded.

Sheriff Ryan Arbon lamented the turn of events, but said little more with the probe continuing. “It’s still an ongoing investigation,” he said Monday.

The Weber County Attorney’s Office is handling the inquiry, launched last April and focused on Ogden Trece, a local gang, and the trafficking of Suboxone, used to treat opioid addiction. Court papers also reference attempted trafficking of fentanyl.

As described in court papers, Brian Hammerle, facing 20 felony counts, the most of any of the suspects, allegedly spearheaded the drug-trafficking effort from inside the Weber County Jail. He reportedly directed “other Ogden Trece gang members and associates and persons who are in custody, on probation, on parole or under pre-trial supervision in the coordinated and ongoing smuggling and distribution of controlled substances” in the jail, read his charging papers.

Sixteen of the counts Hammerle faces are for alleged distribution of a controlled substance.

Jennica Massie, hired on at the jail in July 2021 as a civilian corrections assistant, is the jail employee who allegedly got caught up in the network. But, as described in court papers, she was just one reported player. Massie faces two felony counts of distributing or attempting to distribute drugs in a jail.

According to the initial charging document against Massie, who handled laundry duties at the jail, she allegedly supplied drugs to Ogden Trece members through Cristian Perez-Gonzalez, an inmate also charged in the matter. The probe allegedly found that “Massie was bringing Suboxone into the jail during her shift and providing the narcotics to Perez-Gonzalez who would then further distribute the Suboxone to other Ogden Trece gang members,” court papers read.

Perez-Gonzalez faces a charge of distributing or arranging to distribute a drug in a jail.

Charged just last week for the first time in the probe were Justin Espinoza, who allegedly trafficked Suboxone in the jail, according to court papers, and Jose Carlos of Ogden. New charges were filed last week against Benjamin Zavala-Magana, a Weber County Jail inmate, and Jacob Clark, who had already been charged. The charges against the men relate variously to money laundering and drug trafficking in a jail.

Court papers say what would be one dose of Suboxone on the street with a value of $5 is 10-15 dosages in jail with a collective value of $300.

The drug is in demand in the jail “because a person can still get the high but there is less chance of overdosing,” read court papers. Most inmates, the court papers continue, “put the Suboxone strips in their eye or snort the strips when put in water.”

A Harvard Medical School report on Suboxone describes the drug as a means to reduce addiction to stronger opiates. “Suboxone, like any opiate and many other medications, can be misused. However, because it is only a ‘partial’ agonist of the main opiate receptor (the ‘mu’ receptor), it causes much less euphoria than the other opiates such as heroin and oxycodone,” it reads.

Though Suboxone is a central focus of the jail trafficking network targeted by Weber County officials, it’s not the only substance.

Jose Luis Sandoval, also charged in the probe, allegedly tried to bring a mix of drugs into the Weber County Jail after completing a temporary furlough in a federal case. When he was scanned on his return to the jail, he was allegedly found in possession of 25 fentanyl pills, 52 Suboxone strips, 10 grams of heroin and 5 grams of methamphetamine, according to his charging papers.

“During an interview Sandoval said he was attempting to get the narcotics into jail because he was told to do so by a shot caller of the Ogden Trece gang,” the court papers read. Sandoval faces four charges related to alleged drug trafficking or drug possession in a jail, all felonies.

Also facing drug charges in 2nd District Court in connection with the probe are Brent Vigil of Ogden; Camilla Iorg of Ogden; Leo Alejandre of Layton; Hammerle’s wife, Melissa Hammerle of Syracuse; and Penny Hughes of Ogden.

According to a June report by the National Institute of Justice focused on use of drones to deliver contraband to jails, facilities across the nation are threatened by a range of contraband items smuggled in via a range of methods. The National Institute of Justice is a research agency within the U.S. Department of Justice.

“Drugs are commonly smuggled into prisons and jails by incarcerated persons, staff and visitors. Concealment efforts make it difficult to identify incoming drugs with any one technology or strategy,” reads the report.

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