Florida inmate sentenced to 20 years in prison for sending death threats against judges, prosecutors and deputy U.S. Marshals in South Florida

Michael Dean Drew was already in a Florida prison when he again sent threatening letters last year against federal judges, prosecutors and deputy U.S. Marshals — even promising death at the hands of members of the Aryan Nation.

Drew, 51, now faces an additional 20 years in prison for his actions, the U.S. attorney’s office in Miami said Thursday. The statement did not identify the targets by name.

Drew, a Jacksonville native, was sentenced earlier this week by federal Judge Federico Moreno in Miami after pleading guilty June 6 to five counts of sending threatening messages. The prison sentence, which the government said is above the prescribed sentencing range, will run consecutive to the sentence he is currently serving.

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Drew had previously been convicted five times “for sending threatening letters to federal judges, assistant United States attorneys and federal law enforcement officers,” the government said in a statement.

In 2017, he was charged with threatening a federal judge in Pensacola, part of the Northern District of Florida. In 2016, he was charged and sentenced to five years and 10 months in prison for sending threatening letters to another federal judge in the Middle District of Florida. In 2012, he was sentenced to two years and four months in prison for threatening a federal judge in the Middle District of Florida.

Dean had been in prison for 30 years for trafficking in stolen property. According to a 2016 statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District, Dean was convicted under Florida’s recidivism after release law. In 2006, he challenged the sentence in federal court in Jacksonville, but his request was denied three years later. “In 2011, Drew sent threatening letters to the federal judge who denied his release and to a Florida assistant attorney general involved in those proceedings,” the North Florida statement said.

Sending a message

“Law enforcement officers, judges, and prosecutors work every day to keep us safe in the face of an ever-growing list of threats,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a statement released by the U.S. Attorney in Miami. “Threatening them for doing their jobs to keep our communities safe strikes at the very heart of our society. This lengthy sentence sends a powerful message that we will take all necessary steps to protect the public servants who dedicate their lives to keeping our public safe.”

“Public servants who work to keep our country safe and uphold the rule of law should not have to fear for their lives or the lives of their families,” said U.S. Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “This conviction should make clear that the Justice Department does not tolerate violence or threats of violence against public servants.”

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said the 20-year sentence handed down to Michael Dean Drew is an example of what future offenders can expect if they threaten federal judges and other law enforcement officials. (Stephanie Scarbrough/AP file)

“As the case against Michael Dean Drew demonstrates, we will continue to investigate threats against public officials and aggressively seek to punish those who commit such heinous crimes,” said U.S. Attorney Markenzy Lapointe for the Southern District of Florida. “We must protect our dedicated government employees so they can do their jobs without fear and keep our democracy functioning.”

Gadyaces Serralta, the U.S. marshal for South Florida, said his agency would “continue to investigate and hold accountable anyone who attempts to intimidate public officials.”

The Marshals Service has reported an increase in threats in recent years against the justice and law enforcement officers it is charged with protecting. Across 94 federal judicial districts and 850 facilities, the service is responsible for protecting more than 30,000 people. In fiscal year 2023, it recorded 1,060 threats, according to the agency’s website.

Threat Chain

The latest series of threatening letters sent by Drew began in May 2023, the government said, with a threat to an unnamed federal judge in the Southern District of Florida, saying the jurist would “die a violent death for presiding over a particular criminal case.”

In August, two other letters sent to a federal court in Miami targeted “another federal judge and members of the U.S. Marshal Service.”

“In each of the letters, Drew described how he recruited others to brutally murder the judge and members of the U.S. Marshal Service,” the government said.

In September, Drew expanded the geographic scope of his letters to federal prosecutors in Virginia and Georgia. According to the government, Dean pledged to recruit gang members and members of the Aryan Nation to attack the prosecutors and their family members.

In a letter, the government said Drew had said he would “take great pleasure in knowing that you will suffer and die.” A judge’s body, he added, would be “thrown like trash, into a ditch.”

Drew noted in another letter to U.S. Marshals that he was “recruiting” as many fellow inmates as possible into the Aryan Nation gang, and that “our primary objective is to assassinate as many U.S. Marshals as possible… My comrades and I have sworn a blood oath to kill, harass, terrorize and destroy federal agents.”

In each of the letters, Drew said, the deaths “were retaliation for their role in the justice system.”