OFFICER, FAMILY MEMBERS SUSPECTED OF SUPPLYING DRUGS TO PRISONER

CUSHING -- An elaborate scheme involving family members, a correctional
officer and use of the U.S. Postal System has surfaced during investigation
into drugs inside a private prison. Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics spokesman
Mark Woodward said agents suspect a ring of five people outside the prison,
including a guard who was charged in January, was supplying mostly crack
and marijuana to inmate Michael Gaines inside the Cimarron Correctional
Facility.

Agents on Wednesday were reviewing bank records and post office box
documents seized Tuesday in the search of two Chandler homes and one in Stroud.

Agents are unsure of the amount of drugs and money entering and leaving the
prison, Woodward said. He expects prosecutors to file charges soon in
federal court in Oklahoma City.

Woodward said it appears that Gaines would seek drugs from his brother,
Christopher Gaines, whose house in Stroud was one of those searched. The
money for the drugs was sent to a post office box.

Agents suspect that Sharon Steele, the Gaines' mother, and Christina
Andrews would pick up the money.

Woodward said investigators believe Loy Eugene Driver would deliver the
drugs to correctional officer Steven Zoope Williams, who would take them
into the prison. Driver, 33, was charged in February and is expected to
turn himself in, Woodward said.

The investigation began last fall when prison officials began to suspect
Williams, Warden Tim O'Dell said. Williams, 27, purchased methamphetamine
from bureau agents during a sting operation and was arrested in October, he
said.

"He may have been doing it for a lot of people inside," Woodward said. "We
don't have any hard evidence of when it started."