Federal law enforcement launched a massive search for contraband at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn on Monday, following a series of violent incidents involving illicit items smuggled into the prison, according to officials and a person in contact with detainees.

A spokesperson for the Federal Bureau of Prisons said in a statement that the operation was planned and there was no active threat. Monday evening, the search continued. The office said multiple agencies were involved, including the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Inspector General. A reporter’s video from the scene shows members of the FBI and U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration outside the prison.

The search comes after nine people detained at the Metropolitan Detention Center were charge last month with a series of murders and prolonged, uninterrupted knife fights. The prison has fallen scrutiny by city and state authorities and has been the subject of urgent interventions by federal officials. Some judges have refused to send the accused await their trial there. At the same time, several high-profile defendants are awaiting trial there, including Sean “Diddy” Combs, R.Kelly And Sam Bankman-Fried.

People detained at the facility said they didn’t know the search was coming and sent a message early Monday morning saying they were “struck,” according to Mike Antone, a paralegal who was once incarcerated there and stated that he is now in prison daily. contact with detainees. He said “to be hit” meant to be searched.

“Everyone is thrown to the ground, handcuffed, taken out, completely searched,” he said. “Then (they) put them in a dry unit, one by one, until they tore the unit apart.”

Antone, who also runs a popular store social media channel about the prison, said these searches can last six to eight hours depending on what investigators are looking for. He compared Monday’s search to one several years ago at the Metropolitan Correctional Center where a the loaded weapon was smuggled This search lasted several days, Antone said.

Contraband inside the prison was allegedly used in a December 2023 murder-for-hire plot in which three men communicated via cellphone to arrange the execution of rivals outside the prison, according to a recent report federal. charge.

“Personally, I know guards will bring phones for $1,000,” Antone said. “They’re going to collect it from an inmate’s family, the phone and the charger, everything.” Inside the prison, he said the phones are then sold for four to 10 times the price.

Representatives of the corrections officers’ union did not immediately respond to messages.

One of the recent steps federal authorities have taken to stem violence at the Metropolitan Detention Center has been to increase the pay of correctional officers. Guards in the federal system are paid nationally and less than local prison officers. In January, base pay started at $68,400 per year. That amount was increased to $84,000 and could reach $103,300 after five years, officials said.