BOSTON — Federal prosecutors say a former Massachusetts state employee got caught in a prison-contraband scandal straight out of a movie: slipping drug-soaked paper to an inmate inside a federal lockup.

The woman, Tasha Hammock, 44, of Bridgewater, was sentenced on January 16 in federal court in Worcester after admitting she provided contraband to a federal prison inmate. The feds say the contraband wasn’t just a random note or “paperwork” — it was paper allegedly laced with K2, the synthetic drug often blamed for violent, unpredictable behavior behind bars.

According to prosecutors, the handoff happened during a visit at FMC Devens on August 18, 2024. They say Hammock “surreptitiously passed” the K2-laced papers to inmate Raymond Gaines — and that he tucked them away.

At the time, prosecutors say Hammock worked for the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection — meaning, in the government’s telling, this wasn’t some outsider trying to sneak something in. This was a state employee, inside a federal prison visiting room, allegedly smuggling a drug delivery system disguised as plain paper.

The inmate she allegedly supplied wasn’t exactly a choirboy, either. Gaines was already in federal custody after pleading guilty in 2022 to cocaine distribution and possessing a firearm in furtherance of drug trafficking. He originally got more than seven years — but later received an Executive Grant of Clemency on January 17, 2025, cutting his sentence to five years.

Prosecutors asked for a year in prison for Hammock. The judge didn’t go that route. Instead, Hammock was sentenced to three years of probation — a resolution that will raise eyebrows given what the government says was smuggled and where it was headed.