JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A Jacksonville defense attorney was arrested Sunday and accused of smuggling drugs into the Duval County Jail, according to the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office.
JSO on Tuesday announced the arrest of Nathan Williams, 37, and 20 others in a months-long investigation into how drugs were getting into the jail.
JSO said Williams is accused of exchanging drug-laced paperwork for money.
“He dishonored an honorable profession,” JSO Undersheriff Shawn Coarsey said.
As a criminal defense attorney, JSO said Williams coordinated with inmates and inmate family members to smuggle sheets of purported legal paperwork into the jail. JSO said the sheets of paper were laced with Adb-pinaca, a synthetic marijuana and a Schedule One controlled substance.
JSO said it is known on the street as “paper dope” or “K2,″ a paper soaked in the liquid form of synthetic marijuana that can be abused by the inmates.
JSO said the investigation revealed that Williams was getting around a screening process and delivering drug-soaked sheets of paper to the jail.
His arrest report shows JSO had Williams under regular surveillance both around Jacksonville and when he would visit the jail.
Williams is charged with multiple felonies related to drug trafficking and communication with inmates.
JSO said the investigation, Operation Stamp Collection, reduced inmate overdoses by 61% from 23 in 2023 to 9 in 2024. The investigation is ongoing and more arrests are anticipated, JSO said.
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JSO said Williams was admitted to the Florida Bar in 2014 and is a graduate of Florida A&M University, College of Law. Williams has also been a member of the Army National Guard for 16 years.
“Jails operate as a microcosm of our larger society. The same ills that plague our community also plague our jails. The illegal abuse of narcotics is no exception to this reality,” Coarsey said. “This agency takes its responsibility very seriously to provide care for those who are detained in the Duval County Jail, that an attorney used the professional access, according to him, to smuggle a controlled substance into the jail is deeply disturbing and disappointing.”
JSO recently implemented a policy that states that any paperwork brought into the jail will be copied by a correctional officer and then given to the inmates to keep that kind of smuggling from happening.
Belkis Plata is a local defense lawyer who suspected something was up.
“There were rumors that attorneys were bringing in drug-laced paperwork, that’s all we heard,” she said.
Plata said the arrest sets a dangerous precedent.
“As defense attorneys, we’re supposed to have access to our clients 24/7 to provide them with confidential information,” she said.
