Cops replace drugs in Florida evidence room with fakes, then sell real stuff, feds say

A sergeant and a Florida trooper stole cash and drugs from evidence and sold the drugs in a more than $420,000 scheme, federal officials said.

Both were also task force officers with the Drug Enforcement Administration.

James Hickox has now been sentenced to 17 years in prison, WTLV reported Jan. 27. He pleaded guilty to conspiring to distribute narcotics, conspiring to defraud the United States and tax evasion, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida.

“I stand here today as a guilty man,” Hickox said during his sentencing covered by WJXT. “One of the many regrets and bad decisions that has led me here. I want to take the time to apologize to friends, family, the U.S. government and coworkers.”

McClatchy News reached out to Hickox’s attorney for comment Jan. 27 but did not receive an immediate response.

Hickox is accused of working with former Florida Highway Patrol Trooper Joshua Earrey to steal heroin, cocaine, marijuana and fentanyl, then sell the illicit drugs for a profit.

Earrey pleaded guilty to conspiring to distribute narcotics, conspiring to defraud the United States, and possessing firearms and ammunition while an unlawful user of controlled substances.

The pair would steal both cash and drugs during traffic stops and searches in north Florida, federal investigators said in court documents. In their role as DEA task force officers, the pair searched storage units, freight shipments and vehicles, investigators said.

When seizing cash during these stops, they would skim money off the top, sometimes $15,000 and sometimes $4,000, before putting the rest in evidence and logging a fake amount, investigators said.

Hickox is accused of targeting marijuana specifically and stealing over 1,000 pounds to sell in the Jacksonville area.

He would then report that the drugs were being sent to a facility to be destroyed, or he would take drugs that were being sent for destruction and keep them for himself, officials said.

In one instance, Earrey reached out to Hickox about cocaine in DEA evidence that was going to be destroyed, investigators said. Hickox paid a business to make 3D printed replicas of cocaine bricks that were then painted with glue and dusted with cocaine to make them look real, according to investigators.

Earrey replaced the real brick of cocaine with a fake one and marked that it didn’t need to be tested before it was sent to a lab to be destroyed, investigators said.

Then Hickox is accused of having a drug dealer sell it for about $20,000.

In other cases, Hickox used confidential informants who thought they were helping the sheriff’s office by selling drugs Hickox would give to them, investigators said. But they didn’t know Hickox was giving them heroin, fentanyl, cocaine and marijuana that he had stolen, investigators said. He’s accused of doing this on at least 50 occasions.

When law enforcement searched his home, they found fake drugs and real drugs, as well as several stolen guns in a marked DEA evidence bag, authorities said in a complaint.

Over the years of the scheme, Hickox earned $421,000 in cash that he didn’t report when filing his taxes, leading to a charge of tax evasion.

“He betrayed the oath he took to become a police officer and lost his career,” Nassau County Sheriff Bill Leeper said in a statement shared with McClatchy News. “He also let down his co-workers and our community. It’s law enforcement officers who do stupid things like this that erodes the confidence and trust in our profession by our citizens.”

Earrey is scheduled for sentencing April 9, records show.

Nassau County is the northeasternmost county in Florida.

This story was originally published January 28, 2025 at 8:01 AM with the headline "Cops replace drugs in Florida evidence room with fakes, then sell real stuff, feds say."