JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A task force officer with the Drug Enforcement Administration who pleaded guilty on drug-related and fraud charges was sentenced to more than 17 years in prison Monday. 

38-year-old James Darrell Hickox, from Jacksonville, worked for the Nassau County Deputy Sheriff’s Office and was a designated task force officer with the DEA. He and Joshua Earrey, who worked for the Florida Highway Patrol as well as DEA, were both arrested in March 2023 for drug crimes. 

Hickox pleaded guilty to distributing narcotics, conspiring to defraud the United States government and evading taxes.

In 2017, Hickox and a co-conspirator stole money and illegal drugs, including fentanyl and cocaine, from evidence collected during investigations. 

The United States Attorney’s Office says Hickox and the co-conspirator took more than 1,000 pounds of marijuana and provided drugs to others to sell to make a profit. He then hid $420,000 he had accumulated from the IRS.

Hickox and the co-conspirator also stole a kilogram of cocaine out of evidence and gave it to a drug dealer to sell for them. They submitted false paperwork showing that the drugs had been “destroyed” in both cases.

When Hickox’s home was searched, agents found 263 grams of a powder containing fentanyl, as well as cocaine. Officials say he intended to distribute these drugs. He also had four firearms that had been seized during investigations, which should have been entered into evidence. Agents also found more than $195,000.

260 meth pills were found in Hickox’s workspace at the sheriff’s office also.

Hickox faced a combined maximum penalty of 50 years in federal prison. He was sentenced to 17 and a half years in a federal courtroom Monday morning. 

The arrests of Hickox and Earrey also led to charges being dismissed for two defendants from 2020 shooting of a Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office detective at a suspected drug house on Rutledge Pearson Drive.