Gulf Shores Attorney Smuggling Prison Sentence: In Mobile, Alabama, a Gulf Shores man, Michael Leonides Santos, has been sentenced to four months in prison for illegally smuggling paper soaked in “spice,” a synthetic cannabinoid, to a federal inmate at the Monroe County Detention Center. Santos, a practicing attorney, was arrested on February 18, 2022, after corrections officers seized papers soaked with spice from a federal inmate who had just met with him in a visiting room at the jail.
Surveillance video revealed Santos handing the soaked papers to the inmate, who then concealed them in his socks. Federal agents subsequently searched Santos’s vehicle and discovered prepackaged baggies containing contraband items like tobacco, phones, charging cables, and more.
Further investigation uncovered text messages on a contraband cell phone seized from the inmate. These messages implicated Santos in contraband smuggling activities. The inmate had exchanged monitored “Chirp” text messages with Santos between November 2021 and February 2022, discussing plans to smuggle spice into the jail, packaging methods, and potential profits from distributing spice inside the facility. In a December 2021 message, the inmate reassured Santos about the lax scrutiny of such visits.
Apart from the four-month prison sentence, United States District Judge Kristi K. DuBose mandated a one-year term of supervised release for Santos, during which he will undergo substance abuse testing and treatment. The court imposed a $200 fine and ordered Santos to pay $25 in special assessments. As part of Santos’s plea agreement, he is prohibited from representing criminal defendants in any U.S. jurisdiction moving forward.
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