LYMEK FRAZIER, 33, of Brooklyn, N.Y., a former Youth Development Specialist (“YDS”) for the City Administration for Children’s Services (“ACS”), was arrested and charged Wednesday, October 29, 2025, with conspiracy to commit Travel Act bribery, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, and was arraigned late yesterday before United States Magistrate Judge Taryn A. Merkl. FRAZIER was released on a $100,000 unsecured bond and ordered to home detention, with electronic monitoring. As detailed in the Complaint, FRAZIER took bribes from residents of the Crossroads Juvenile Center in Brooklyn and their associates in exchange for smuggling contraband into Crossroads.
Jocelyn E. Strauber, Commissioner of the New York City Department of Investigation, announced the arrest, made in connection with a contraband smuggling investigation that DOI worked in partnership with the Offices of Christopher G. Raia, Assistant Director in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”), New York Field Office, and Joseph Nocella, Jr., United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, which is handling the prosecution.
DOI Commissioner Jocelyn E. Strauber said, “This defendant was trusted to ensure the safety and well-being of the young people under his supervision as a youth development specialist. He betrayed that trust when, as charged, he accepted illicit payments to smuggle contraband into the Crossroads Juvenile Center, jeopardizing the safety of its residents and staff. I thank the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York and the FBI for their commitment to maintain the order and safety in the City’s juvenile detention centers.”
According to the Complaint, approximately 176 residents ranging from ages 14 to 20 are detained at Crossroads, and approximately 280 staff members work at the facility. Residents at Crossroads are prohibited from possessing any contraband, including narcotics, cellular telephones, cigarettes, weapons and alcohol, among other prohibited items. ACS prohibits Crossroads staff from offering or giving contraband or gifts to residents, receiving any gifts or money from residents or anyone associated with them, and having any unauthorized contact with residents or anyone associated with them. Crossroads staff receive training on these and other prohibitions.
Between approximately March 2022 and September 2025, at least 112 cell phones and approximately 699 scalpels or blades were recovered from the facility, as well as narcotics and tobacco. Based on the evidence gathered in this investigation, at least a portion of this contraband was smuggled into the facility by Crossroads staff, including the defendant.
Crossroads staff undergo a security screening when they arrive to work at the facility. Staff members’ belongings are put through an X-ray machine, and all staff pass through a magnetometer (metal detector). Crossroads staff are required to put their personal cell phones and any other prohibited items in a locker prior to undergoing the security screening.
FRAZIER was employed as a YDS at Crossroads from November 2023 to January 2025. Between approximately February 2024 and January 2025, FRAZIER received approximately $72,356 on his Cash App account from Crossroads residents or their associates. For example, from approximately April 2024 to October 2024, an associate of a Crossroads resident sent FRAZIER approximately $21,016 over 48 transactions. Some of the subject lines written by the sender of the payments indicated the payments were in fact bribes to bring in contraband, such as “1 zip,” “papers & toe” “sprinkles” and “grabba,” which all make reference to either marijuana, tobacco or marijuana paraphernalia.
From approximately November 2024, to January 2025, the sibling of a Crossroads resident sent FRAZIER approximately $7,350 over 14 transactions through Cash App. Approximately 12 of these transactions, consisting of approximately $5,950, contained the subject line “30s” listed in each subject line, which indicate that the payment was to bring in 30 mg tablets of oxycodone. Between February and June 2024, another sibling of a Crossroads resident sent the defendant a total of approximately $10,318 over approximately 33 transactions through Cash App. The majority of the payments include the nickname of a Crossroads resident in the subject line, which allowed FRAZIER to know that those payments were bribes from that resident -- or associates of that resident -- to bring contraband to that resident.
FRAZIER and his co-conspirators not only used Cash App to send and receive bribes but also to communicate in furtherance of the scheme. On March 9 to 10, 2024, FRAZIER and a Crossroads resident engaged in a discussion regarding their criminal scheme (including smuggling marijuana into the facility) by sending one-dollar payments back and forth and writing their communications in the subject lines of the transactions. During this same conversation, FRAZIER requested that a resident (“Resident-1”) send Resident-1’s phone number, and Resident-1 replied with a number, which was assigned to a contraband cell phone recovered by ACS in a residence hall in Crossroads in April 2024. Phone records show that on March 9 and March 10, 2024, FRAZIER had approximately four phone calls with this contraband cell phone, including a call within minutes of the above messages.
On January 10, 2025, FRAZIER entered the Crossroads facility to report for his scheduled shift. An ACS supervisor standing directly behind FRAZIER observed an object fall out of FRAZIER’s pocket as he was going through the metal detector to enter the facility. ACS Police immediately retrieved the object from the floor and identified it as a silver blade. ACS subsequently terminated FRAZIER for attempting to bring dangerous and prohibited contraband into the facility
At the time of his termination in January 2025, FRAZIER was receiving an annual salary of approximately $51,502.
A criminal complaint is an accusation. A defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty.
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