Customs and Drug Enforcement Agency Employee Sentenced to 17 Years for Manufacturing 3D-Printed Cocaine
For about half a decade, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration task force officer and Nassau County Sheriff's deputy James Darrell Hickox leveraged his position in law enforcement to moonlight as a drug dealer. His less-than-ingenious strategies didn't pay off, and now he's serving a 17-year sentence in prison.
Hickox was apprehended in 2023 and confessed to the multiple charges against him in 2024. He worked as a deputy for the Nassau County Sheriff's department in Florida and a DEA agent, engaging in nefarious activities such as snatching drugs and money during drug busts or from evidence lockers. He'd then hand off these illicit goods to street-level dealers or keep them for personal sale. In one instance, he swiped over a thousand pounds of weed from an evidence locker, falsely claiming it had been incinerated, and peddled it off instead.
One of Hickox's more unconventional schemes involved pilfering a kilogram of cocaine from an evidence locker and swapping it out for a 3D-printed brick laced with real cocaine to make it seem authentic. This brazen endeavor mirrored the attempts of a wayward teenager attempting to cover up their nocturnal escapades from overly suspicious parents by using stuffed animals to fill out an empty bed.
When authorities finally cracked down on Hickox's activities, raiding his residence, they uncovered a cache of four weapons taken from evidence lockers, slated for destruction, an illegally modified machine gun, and a garage affectionately known as "Gator's Man Cave."
Within this subterranean lair, cops discovered drugs aplenty – 260 tablets containing methamphetamine and 263 grams of a concoction containing both cocaine and fentanyl.
The motives behind Hickox's deceitful conduct fluctuated, depending on whom one asked. In court, he claimed his cancer diagnosis and desire to provide for his family swayed his moral compass. However, Judge Wendy Berger remained skeptical, commenting, "I recognize the cancer diagnosis and health issues, but I don't see how that causes an individual to engage in what you did. I'm having a hard time with that."
Hickox's parents, on the other hand, argued that he was transformed into a drug dealer due to the DEA's nature of work, telling a local TV station, "They have to live two lives. You’re out slingin’ dope for the DEA and then you go home and be a family man."
Sources:
- DEA officer charged with drug trafficking in federal court
- Florida law enforcement officer arrested in drug case
- Former DEA officer and Nassau County deputy sentenced to 17.5 years in prison for drug-trafficking conspiracy
- Deputy, DEA officer arrested on drug charges
After his arrest in 2023, Hickox acknowledged his involvement in various criminal activities and confessed to the charges against him in 2024. In the future, technology and advancements in crime-fighting measures may help prevent incidents like these, providing a deterrent for law enforcement officers who may be tempted to abuse their positions.
