A Columbia man pleaded guilty to charges that included a plan to bring illegal narcotics and other contraband into the Lexington County Detention Center.

According to a release from the 11th Circuit Solicitor’s Office, Ricky Rogers McField, was convicted March 27 and sentenced to 15 years for trafficking cocaine, five years for conspiracy, and 10 years for furnishing contraband into the jail.

Under state law, the trafficking charge is classified as violent/serious and does not allow for the possibility of parole.

The release states that McField, who was out on bond at the time, was stopped at a license checkpoint on North Lake Drive in Lexington County on May 25, 2022. He was arrested for driving with a suspended license.

“Following a search of McField’s person incident to arrest, law enforcement officers found a clear plastic baggie containing marijuana in his pants pocket,” the release states. “Later, while at the Lexington County Detention Center, officers found additional narcotics in McField’s underwear to include: 21.5 grams of a white powdery substance consistent with cocaine; two small clear baggies with 5.9 grams of a crystal-like substance consistent with methamphetamine; two small clear baggies with 4.2 grams of a white rock-like substance consistent with crack cocaine; and one clear baggie with 42 dosage units of a white pill consistent with Xanax.”

The release goes on to explain that agents with the sheriff’s department’s Narcotics Enforcement Team later discovered an additional scheme being plotted by McField and another inmate to bring narcotics and contraband into the jail.

“During the investigation, agents discovered a conversation McField had with a woman, who was not incarcerated, instructing her to get ‘green’ (which is marijuana), ‘clear’ (which is methamphetamine), and other contraband items,” the release states. “The investigation revealed that this same woman then purchased the narcotics and packaged them in a black bag. The woman then gave the package to another individual who drove in a U-Haul truck to the jail and tossed the black bag with the narcotics over the fence at the jail. Other inmates retrieved the black bag and immediately brought it to McField in his room at the detention center. Law enforcement believe at that point the drugs were distributed to other inmates by McField.”

According to the release, Mcfield has prior convictions for illicit narcotics, burglary, possession of burglary tools, and malicious injury to property. 

TAssistant Solicitor Kelly Oppenheimer prosecuted the case, with the state Highway Patrol assisting the Lexington County Sheriff’s Department in the investigation.