A 55-year Prison Empire sentence

A 55-year prison sentence has been meted out in Pickens County to a woman caught up in the state grand jury investigation of Prison Empire.  Jennifer Nicole Burns pleaded guilty to trafficking methamphetamine, 400 grams or more (Conspiracy); possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime; and possession with intent to distribute marijuana.  According to the office of the South Carolina Attorney General, Burns distributed meth at the direction of her boyfriend, Warren Chastain, an inmate at the state Department of Corrections, and had a direct connection to the Cartel. At first, Burns indicated she would cooperate with law enforcement.  That same night, she chose to flee South Carolina for Mexico.  Burns lived in Mexico among Cartel members for four years where she continued to facilitate trafficking of hundreds of kilograms of methamphetamine into the Upstate.  She was sentenced last month during a special term of the State Grand Jury in Pickens County.  Prison Empire is an investigation of a drug trafficking group that operated from September 2013 to May 2021.  Prisoners used contraband cell phones from within the SCDC to coordinate drug trafficking with co-conspirators primarily in Pickens, Anderson, and Greenville counties and Mexico.