Crooked jail employee and mum plotted to place ‘snitch’ drug smuggler lag ‘in physique bag’

Jada Wilson, 25, an employee at HMP Featherstone used her security system to confirm to her mother Ezerine Manning the whereabouts of a prisoner that an associate wanted to kill

A prison worker and her mum have been sent down for their roles in a plot to put an inmate drug smuggler “in a body bag”.

Jada Wilson, an admin assistant at HMP Featherstone in Staffordshire, tipped off her mother Ezerine Manning that Hekta Autsa was banged up at high-security HMP Belmarsh in London. Manning then passed the info to co-defendant Ashley Wilkin, 38, who was after “retribution” against Autsa, mistakenly thinking he was a “snitch” after a smuggling operation went wrong.

Autsa and Wilkin were involved in a multi-million pound scheme to bring 48 kilos of meth into Britain from Mexico, hidden inside crane parts.

However, the stash was intercepted by the Border Force, but Wilkin thought Autsa had stolen the drugs, when the latter failed to tell his co-conspirators about the seizure.

In a bone-chilling text to a pal, Wilkin wrote “H has got to go”, as revealed in Birmingham Crown Court on Thursday, March 20, where the mother and daughter duo were jailed for their part in passing on information on Autsa’s whereabouts..

They had both pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit misconduct in a public office.

Wilson, 25, from Hillside Road, Great Barr, got two years and four months, while Manning, 44, from Bromford Road, Oldbury, was handed two years and two months.

Judge Sarah Buckingham slammed their actions for eroding public trust in the prison system and declared: “The harm that could have been caused was serious.”

The methamphetamine, with a street value of between £2.8m to £4.4m, was nabbed by UK Border Force in October 2023.

Autsa was the one handling the drugs upon arrival, and knew about the seizure, but didn’t inform his co-conspirators before he was arrested later that month, according to court proceedings.

Wilkin was arrested in April 2024. Prosecutor Rebekah Hummerstone stated: “He had come to believe the shipment of drugs had been stolen by Hekta Autsa.

“The contents of his phone indicated he made concerted efforts to track down Hekta Autsa before eventually coming to the conclusion he was within the prison system.”

Judge Buckingham said it was just a misunderstanding, after Autsa didn’t inform his fellow criminals what had happened

She said: “There was a period of radio silence that led Ashley Wilkin to erroneously think there was something dodgy about what had happened over the next few months through the belief Hekta Autsa was a snitch.”

In one message retrieved from Wilkin’s phone he said Autsa was “going back to Thailand in a body bag”.

In November that year he began to request information about Autsa from Manning, who was his cousin’s ex-partner.

Within eight minutes, she responded with screenshots from the National Offender Management Information System (NOMIS) confirming his location at HMP Belmarsh.

The screenshots originated from the database at HMP Featherstone, where Manning’s daughter Wilson was employed as a complaints clerk in the administration block. She accessed the system using her own login credentials.

Gurdeep Garcha KC, representing both defendants, described them as typically “law-abiding, decent, industrious people” who were exploited by “criminals from the premier division”.

He explained to the court how Manning’s life “fell apart” after two significant family losses and the discovery that her partner, a relative of Wilkin, was “leading a double life”.

Mr Garcha revealed that she ended up homeless, hit “rock bottom” and “found solace in alcohol and drugs”. He detailed how Wilkin offered her free narcotics in return for information.

He informed the court that Wilson had a six-month-old son and proposed she could be punished outside of prison and not “pay for the sins of her mother”, who he admitted had to be sentenced to immediate custody.

However, Judge Buckingham disagreed and told Wilson: “You ultimately made your own decisions with the full knowledge of what that contract you signed compelled you to do and you ignored it”.

The sentencing for Wilkin will take place at a later date.