Correctional officer charged in scheme to smuggle contraband into MCC

A federal correctional officer was charged Thursday in connection with an alleged scheme to smuggle cellphones, synthetic marijuana and cigarettes into the Metropolitan Correctional Center in downtown Chicago.

Last year, 28-year-old Rafael Lizak, of Chicago, took bribes in exchange for delivering contraband to a pair of inmates, 35-year-old Felipe Zamora and 41-year-old Carlos Fuentes, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois. Felipe Zamora’s sister, 38-year-old Guadalupe Zamora, provided Lizak with the contraband and bribe payments.

Felipe Zamora, Fuentes and others allegedly took orders for contraband from other inmates that Lizak subsequently smuggled into the MCC, prosecutors said. Felipe Zamora, who arranged for inmates or their associates to send payment to his sister, worked with Fuentes and other inmates to sell and distribute the contraband within the jail.

Lizak was charged with conspiracy to provide a prohibited object to a prison inmate, prosecutors said. The former correctional officer and his alleged co-conspirators, who all live in Chicago, were also charged with bribery.

The conspiracy charge is punishable by up to five years in prison, while the bribery charge carries a maximum sentence of 15 years, prosecutors said.