An NYPD 911 operator was helping to dispatch drugs to Rikers Island as she fielded emergency calls — conspiring with her convicted-killer boyfriend and two other suspected murderers to sneak contraband into the jail complex, the feds allege.
Police communications technician Jacqueline Hernandez and her killer beau, Barry Wells, were arrested Jan. 29 on federal drug distribution conspiracy charges.
Hernandez, who was taken into custody at the NYPD’s call center in the Bronx, could even be heard performing her duties as a 911 operator while she was arranging one of the illicit drug shipments during a recorded jailhouse call with Wells, the feds allege.
Her boyfriend, Wells, served seven years for criminally negligent homicide after strangling his wife, Tonie Wells, to death in Crown Heights in 2017, and the feds allege the smuggling took place while he was awaiting trial for that killing.
As federal prosecutors in Brooklyn tell it, Hernandez, 36, started working for the NYPD in January 2020, but left her communications tech gig at the end of 2021 to take a job as a city correction officer.
Wells, 37, who was arrested in 2017, was locked up in the jail complex’s Robert N. Davoren Center from April 2022 to April 2024. Hernandez was assigned to Davoren, and their romance bloomed, according to the feds.
Hernandez then quit her jail guard job to rejoin the NYPD and return to her 911 operator gig in July 2023.
Barry Williams for New York Daily News
Barry Wells is pictured in court in 2018. (Barry Williams for New York Daily News)
Hernandez and Wells conspired with two more Rikers detainees, both charged with murder and identified in court papers by their nicknames, “Forty” and “Bless,” as well as their acquaintances on the outside, the feds allege.
Hernandez served as a key link in the conspiracy’s chain, collecting payments at Wells’ direction and handing off drugs to Forty and Bless’ accomplices, who in turn tried to get the drugs into the jail.
Hernandez received more than $80,000 through mobile payment apps as a part of the scheme, and sent her accomplices $20,000 in turn, the feds said.
One intercepted shipment in November 2023 offered some clues about the smuggling method.
In that instance Hernandez was at work at the 911 center, when Wells called her, telling her she had to pick up an unspecified item and give it to “Forty’s girl,” the feds allege.
She did as Wells asked, and a few days later, “Forty’s girl” was caught by Rikers staff trying to sneak three pieces of paper soaked in synthetic cannabis and a glove filled with tobacco under her clothes during a visit.
Wells went on trial for his wife’s murder in 2024, but a jury that February only convicted him of criminally negligent homicide. He was sentenced to seven years, and with the time he already spent on Rikers Island, he was freed in May 2024.
He found himself back in handcuffs in December, on attempted kidnapping, stalking and other domestic violence charges connected to two violent episodes in Manhattan involving yet another girlfriend.
Wells has been held without bail since his arrest in December. His lawyers did not return messages seeking comment.
Hernandez was arraigned in Brooklyn Federal Court and released on $100,000 bond. Her lawyer declined comment Monday.
An NYPD spokesman said she was suspended without pay following her arrest.
