Special to The Leader

BEAUMONT, Texas – A 27-year-old federal prison inmate has been sentenced for possessing a shank in the Eastern District of Texas, announced Acting U.S. Attorney Brit Featherston on Thursday.

Rafael Castillo, Jr., pleaded guilty on Feb. 28, 2017 to possession of a prohibited object and was sentenced to 20 months in federal prison today by U.S. District Judge Ron Clark. This sentence will be served at the conclusion of the sentence Castillo is currently serving.

According to information presented in court, on June 20, 2016, Castillo, an inmate at the Federal Correctional Complex in Beaumont, was found during a pat-down search, to be in possession of two homemade weapons measuring approximately 5.5 inches and 7 inches in length each. Castillo had the weapons concealed in his pants pocket. Each weapon, commonly referred to as a ‘shank,’ had been constructed out of metal material and had been sharpened to a point and designed to be used as a weapon. Such objects are prohibited in the Beaumont Federal Correctional Complex.

This case was investigated by the Bureau of Prisons and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Randall L. Fluke.