DES MOINES, IA – Four individuals have been sentenced in federal court for schemes to smuggle drugs into the Polk County Jail. The U-S Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa reports that on December 19, 2022, Michael Joseph Wilson, 35 of Des Moines, was sentenced to 12 months in prison for attempt to possess contraband in a federal facility. On April 11, 2023, Fawn Ann Colyn, 57 of Des Moines, was sentenced to 30 months in prison after pleading guilty to providing contraband in a federal facility. On April 28, 2023, Randall Joseph Verbeski, 61 of Sioux City, was sentenced to thirty months in prison for possessing contraband in a federal facility. On April 28, 2023, Ashley Michelle Evans, 35 of Ottumwa, was sentenced to a term of five years’ probation for attempt to provide contraband in a federal facility.

According to court documents, as well as evidence presented at the sentencing hearings, Colyn and Verbeski engaged in a scheme to mail Suboxone and other opioids into the Polk County Jail, which houses federal prisoners. The scheme involved Colyn, who was not incarcerated, hiding drugs in envelopes and documents disguised as legal mail, and then sending those envelopes to Verbeski. Verbeski was in the Polk County Jail serving a federal sentence related to a prior gun and drug trafficking offense.

According to court documents, Wilson and Evans engaged in a similar scheme to mail MDMB-4en-PINACA, commonly known as K2, into the Polk County Jail. Evans, who was not incarcerated, hid the K2 in an envelope and document disguised as legal mail which she sent to Wilson. At the time, Wilson was in the Polk County Jail after officers found methamphetamine, heroin, MDMA, and a loaded revolver at his residence in Des Moines. At the time of his arrest, Wilson was on federal supervised release out of Indiana for a firearm conviction. Wilson was ultimately sentenced to a total term of 240 months, for the Iowa and Indiana federal charges. Following their prison sentences, Colyn, Verbeski, and Wilson will serve terms of supervised release. There is no parole in the federal system.

The investigated was conducted by the United States Marshals Service and the Polk County Sheriff’s Office—Jail Division.