Ex-jail guard gets 4 years for smuggling

Federal prosecutors said Thursday that a former guard at a city jail in Philadelphia has been sentenced for smuggling illegal contraband to inmates.

John Wesley Herder, 50, of Philly, was one of six charged last September with smuggling Oxycontin and cellphones to inmates in exchange for cash.

Herding was sentenced to 50 months in federal lockup.

Herding worked at Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility and smuggled a cellphone and 100 Oxycontin pills into the jail for $1,000 in October 2013.

In January 2015, he again brought 100 pills of Oxycontin into the jail for $1,000.

He lied to FBI investiators under questioning before being charged. Herder pleaded guilty in January.

In addition to prison time, a judge fined Herding $2,300.