Addicted for years, ex-FHP trooper gets prison time for drug heists while on DEA task force
A once-standout Florida Highway Patrol trooper will spend nine years in prison for conspiring with another Jacksonville-area lawman to steal drugs and money confiscated from criminals, a federal judge said Friday.
Joshua Earrey, 46, was part of a Drug Enforcement Administration task force who admitted to a string of crimes, some done to feed a years-long dependence on oxycodone pills.
In 2024, Earrey signed a plea agreement that recounted him helping sell more than 1,000 pounds of marijuana that his cohort, former Nassau County Sheriff's Sgt. James Darrell Hickox, stole from Sheriff's Office storage.
Previously: DEA agent from Jacksonville pleads guilty to taking bribes, facilitating large sales of meth, heroin
Hickox was sentenced in January to 17 years and six months in prison.
Sentencing guidelines recommended at least 14 years for Earrey, but prosecutors told U.S. District Judge Wendy Berger he deserved a reduction based on the "substantial assistance" he gave authorities starting when agents approached him as he got off a cruise ship with his family. Assistant U.S. Attorney William Hamilton recommended 11 years, but the judge said Earrey's diligent work on recovery ― he's been sober a little over two years ― justified a further decrease.
Berger, who previously ran a drug court as a state judge, cautioned Earrey to take whatever steps were needed to avoid relapsing while he's behind bars.
"Do what you have to do to stay away from them," the judge said of drugs she acknowledged are often available in prisons. "You made it this far."
When he took a plea dela last year, Earrey admitted a laundry list of crimes that included helping steal a one-kilogram brick of cocaine that he replaced with a 3D-printed dummy brick and helping stage a traffic stop to take a courier's shipment of what was supposed to be about 13 pounds of fentanyl (the shipment turned out to be counterfeit).
The trooper, who had been a finalist for the state's law enforcement officer of the year award in 2010, also admitted in the agreement taking at least $20,000 from drug dealers who either bribed him or were extorted into paying to stay out of trouble.
The cash was used to buy pills, said court records, which also described him trading two cases of rifle and handgun ammunition ― the cases usually contain 1,000 rounds ― for oxycodone from a convicted murderer who didn't have a legal way to buy ammunition.
Earrey, who was prescribed pain pills after being injured training canines for FHP, took 30 to 40 pills a day at the peak of his dependency, Berger was told.
In addition to returning drugs to the street, the crimes Earrey and Hickox admitted also helped scuttle charges against a Jacksonville couple once charged in connection with the 2020 shooting of a Jacksonville police detective during a SWAT call.
As task force members, Earrey and Hickox both played roles in an investigation that led to police serving a warrant at the home where the shooting happened. But their prosecution turned up so much deception that the State Attorney's Office said in 2023 that they "raise significant question" about what happened before the shooting.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Ex-FHP trooper gets 9-year sentence for rip-offs while on DEA task force
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