NORRISTOWN — A West Norriton man already serving a prison sentence for raping a woman at gunpoint in Norristown Farm Park admitted to participating in a scheme to smuggle papers soaked with illegal drugs into the Montgomery County Correctional Facility.
Mason Alexander Hall, 23, formerly of the 2000 block of Palmer Road, pleaded guilty in county court to charges of conspiracy to deliver drugs or contraband to inmates, conspiracy to possess a controlled substance with intent to deliver it and criminal use of a communication facility in connection with incidents that occurred at the jail in Lower Providence between October and December 2021.
At the time of the smuggling scheme, Hall was in jail awaiting sentencing for the Aug. 1, 2017, gunpoint sexual assault of a 19-year-old woman at the park in West Norriton to which he pleaded guilty. In March 2022, Hall was sentenced to 13 to 32 years in prison and is currently serving it in a state penitentiary.
Assistant District Attorney Gabrielle Hughes vowed to seek consecutive prison time against Hall for the smuggling scheme, over and above what he is currently serving for the rape.
“This is a completely separate crime. It has nothing to do with the rape,” said Hughes, arguing Hall didn’t learn a lesson from his previous arrest and continued to commit crimes from behind bars.
“Drug dealing is dangerous in and of itself but when you’re doing it inside a correctional facility, it’s especially dangerous, not only to the people who are going to get it and potentially use it, but also to the employees there who are trying to have some semblance of control in an already dangerous environment,” Hughes added.
Three others also were charged in connection with the drug smuggling scheme.
Luis Velazquez, 38, who also was an inmate at the county jail and allegedly conspired with Hall, is still awaiting court action on charges related to the scheme.
Two others, Patrick David Perna, 22, and Latashia Lucas, 38, both of Norristown, are accused of helping Mason with the scheme from outside the jail.
Perna, of the 200 block of West Fornance Street, Norristown, pleaded guilty to charges of contraband and conspiracy to assist inmates in getting contraband and is awaiting sentencing before Judge Thomas M. DelRicci.
Lucas, of the 200 block of Centre Avenue, is still awaiting trial in connection with her alleged role in the scheme.
With his guilty plea in the smuggling scheme, Hall admitted that he conspired with Valazquez to bring drugs into the jail by soliciting someone outside the jail’s walls to spray pieces of paper with synthetic marijuana and then send it to him through the mail system.
The conspiracy was to get the drugs into the jail and then sell them to other inmates within the jail for profit, prosecutors alleged.
During the investigation, detectives recovered a handwritten letter from Hall to Perna, dated Dec. 11, 2021, in which Hall described the demand in jail for the drug-coated paper and his plan to smuggle 10 pages a month into the jail and sell it at a significant profit. Hall allegedly wrote, “I’m trying to make $100,000 before I go upstate.”
The investigation began after county detectives received information about the conspiracy to smuggle illegal drugs into the jail using papers. The investigation included listening to recorded inmate phone calls with their conspirators, reviewing prison records, physical surveillance, interviews, and drug testing on a recovered letter.
The investigation found that inmates Hall and Valazquez, both housed in the same maximum-security section of the jail, were working with Hall’s friend, Perna, and Valazquez’s girlfriend, Lucas, in an attempt to get controlled substances into the jail through drug-soaked paper. The inmates would then sell the paper soaked with illegal drugs to other inmates.
“In November and December 2021, Hall made phone calls during which the conversations centered on an ‘investment,’ where Hall claimed a person could make an initial investment of $450 or $500 and double or triple their money in 21 days,” detectives wrote in a criminal complaint. “Hall stated during phone calls that he would be the person making all the necessary arrangements and that the only thing needed from the people he was talking to was cash.”
The investigation found that the first attempt to smuggle drugs into the prison was by Lucas. About a month after Valazquez was arrested, according to Lucas, she received a piece of construction paper at her home.
Valazquez allegedly instructed Lucas to have her children draw on the paper and then send it to him in prison. Lucas did as she was instructed, but the paper was rejected by prison officials on Nov. 3, 2021, and returned to Lucas. Records show the rejection was because “crayon-colored artwork not permitted in the facility,” according to court documents.
About three weeks later, Lucas allegedly was the conduit to get the drug-sprayed paper to Perna, at the direction of Hall and Valazquez.
Perna then mailed a hand-written letter on Nov. 15, 2021, to Hall, which was intercepted by jail officials and not delivered due to a “stained” look, according to court documents.
The letter was returned to Perna’s home and recovered there by detectives during the execution of a search warrant. Testing on the letter revealed it actually was sprayed with cocaine, according to court documents.
