Stillwater corrections officer, inmate indicted for meth smuggling operation

A Minnesota corrections officer charged with bringing methamphetamine into prison has now been federally indicted, along with the inmate she conspired with, in connection to the operation.

Faith Rose Gratz, 24, was indicted by a grand jury on charges of conspiracy to distribute meth and possession of meth with intent to distribute. Additionally, 35-year-old Axel Rene Kramer, an inmate at the Oak Park Heights Correctional Facility, was indicted on the charge of conspiracy to distribute meth.

RELATED: Stillwater corrections officer charged with smuggling meth into Stillwater prison

According to the indictment, Gratz worked at the Stillwater Correctional Facility and used her position as a prison guard to smuggle meth into the prison, which she then provided to Kramer.

The indictment states that Gratz smuggled several cellphones into the prison and gave them to Kramer, who then used them to communicate with other inmates inside and outside of the Stillwater prison and facilitate a drug distribution network.

Gratz and Kramer allegedly communicated regularly about the drug distribution conspiracy, upcoming searches of inmates’ cells and possibly getting married when Kramer is released from prison. He’s currently serving a 288-month sentence for murder and could be released in 2024.

Another Stillwater prison inmate, who has not been indicted, is also believed to have worked with several people outside the prison who supplied the drugs that Kramer then had Gratz pick up and bring into the prison.

The documents state Gratz smuggled drugs into the prison on six different occasions before she was caught while trying to smuggle around a half-pound of meth into the prison on April 8.

Gratz was charged a few days later in Washington County court with first-degree drug sale and first-degree drug possession. Her next hearing on the state charges is set for July 21.