JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A former Florida Highway Patrol trooper arrested by the FBI last year and accused of buying drugs from a confidential source has pleaded guilty to three charges.
Joshua Earrey, a more than 20-year veteran of FHP and a former DEA Task Force member, faces up to 60 years in prison according federal sentencing guidelines. Earrey was FHP Trooper of the Year in 2009.
Earrey pleaded guilty to unlawful transportation of firearms, conspiracy to defraud the United State and conspiracy to distribute controlled substances. He pleaded not guilty to an additional charge of unlawful transportation of firearms, according to court documents.
Earrey was arrested the same day as James Hickox, a Nassau County deputy who was also on the DEA Task Force. Hickox pleaded not guilty to charges of possession with intent to sell cocaine, MDMA and fentanyl.
The arrests of Hickox and Earrey led to charges being dismissed for two defendants from 2020 shooting of a Jacksonville Sheriff's Office detective at a suspected drug house on Rutledge Pearson Drive.
The criminal complaint from 2023 said a confidential informant told the FBI that Earrey was addicted to Oxycodone beginning in 2021. The man Earrey was buying drugs from was a confidential source for the DEA, according to the complaint.
Earrey had been the source's "handling agent" at various times between January 2021 and June 2022, the court filing stated.
The source told the FBI that Earrey was buying between seven and 10 pills at a time and paying $30 a pill, according to the complaint. The source said Earrey began using the pills due to chronic back pain and he worried that Earrey was an addict, warning Earrey to "slow down."
Earrey was written 43 legal prescriptions for oxycodone, hydrocodone and extended-release morphine from May 2018 to Jan. 18, 2023, the complaint said. Earrey exchanged 4,572 texts and 3,164 phone calls with the confidential informant, the complaint continued, approximately 27.4% of Earrey's phone activity at the time.
An indictment alleged Earrey stole $2,000 from $20,000 seized during a November 2022 traffic stop, and took $4,000, with Hickox, out of $35,000 seized from residence where a warrant was executed the same month. The indictment said Earrey took $15,000 from a $75,000 seizure in May 2022 and underreported the amount of money seized to the DEA.
The indictment alleged Earrey took marijuana and other drugs that were labeled as evidence, sometimes forging a certificate of destruction and later distributing the drugs.
Earrey's next hearing is Tuesday.