GREENVILLE — A former senior corrections officer at the Butner Federal Correctional Complex has been sentenced to four years in prison and three years of supervised probation after pleading guilty to smuggling contraband to inmates.

Clyon Hinnant, 39, of Raleigh, pleaded guilty of accepting bribes and conspiring to commit wire fraud and mail fraud. Co-conspirator Trina Richardson pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit bribery and wire fraud relating to the deprivation of honest services by a public official. She was sentenced to two years of probation, according to U. S. Attorney Thomas G. Walker.

An investigation revealed that, from January 2011 through October 2011, a conspiring Butner inmate would direct other inmates to send bribe money via Western Union or the U.S. Postal Service to co-conspirators in North Carolina and Virginia. Those people would deliver the money to Richardson, who would travel to Butner and turn the money over to Hinnant. He would then smuggle contraband, including cigarettes and marijuana, into the prison, according to a news release from Walker’s office.