Two Meat Processing Executive Face Up to Five Years in Prison for Cheating the Prison System

Two executives at West Texas Provisions Inc. face up to five years in prison after pleading guilty to selling more than 775,000 pounds of uninspected, misbranded or adulterated meat to 32 prison institutions in 18 states, for which the BOP paid $1,011,166.72.   They also processed whole cow hearts labeled as ground beef.  According to the report, "They kept the whole hearts offsite until inspectors left the premises, then processed the hearts on nights and weekends, when inspectors weren’t working".

Meatingplace
https://www.meatingplace.com/Industry/News/Details/87930
Execs plead guilty to selling adulterated beef to prisons
By Tom Johnston on 9/27/2019Two executives at West Texas Provisions Inc. pleaded guilty to selling more than $1 million of adulterated meat, including whole cow hearts labeled as ground beef, to the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP), according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas.

The company’s president, Jeffery Neal Smith, 49, and operations manager, Derrick Martinez, 43, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to conspiracy to defraud the United States before Magistrate Judge Lee Ann Reno, U.S. Attorney Erin Nealy Cox said in a press release.

Smith and Martinez both face up to five years in prison. Their sentencing is set for Feb. 13, 2020, according to court documents.

Plea papers show that the defendants admitted to selling more than 775,000 pounds of uninspected, misbranded or adulterated meat to 32 prison institutions in 18 states, for which the BOP paid $1,011,166.72.

West Texas Provisions violated the Federal Meat Inspection Act by marketing its products as USDA-inspected when, in fact, they were processed without inspection, the defendants admitted.

Plea papers also show that the company processed whole cow hearts — not permitted in ground beef — and labeled the products as ground beef. They kept the whole hearts offsite until inspectors left the premises, then processed the hearts on nights and weekends, when inspectors weren’t working, Cox said.
Smith and Martinez also admitted that they often kept the lights off inside the plant while processing uninspected meat, hid uninspected meat in the freezer while inspectors were in the building, and distracted inspectors from looking at the product.

The Department of Justice Office of Inspector General and the Department of Agriculture Office of Inspector General conducted the investigation.