A Florida company incorporated just days after the Bureau of Prisons published a nationwide vendor inquiry won an exclusive contract to supply all 118 federal prison commissaries with flavored nicotine pouches that the Food and Drug Administration has not authorized for sale in the United States.
The brand, called "mindSHFT," is sold only through the federal prison system and is not available commercially, according to a review of FDA data reported by CBS News. The 6-milligram pouches were being distributed to federal prisoners across the country.
After CBS News began investigating the arrangement, an anonymous federal employee emailed the Justice Department's inspector general and Attorney General Todd Blanche to raise concerns. A senior prison official then paused the deal on Thursday, ordering all prisons to stop procuring the pouches until further notice, according to a September 3 internal memo reviewed by CBS News.
"This situation deserves immediate attention," the anonymous employee wrote in a whistleblower complaint to Blanche and DOJ Inspector General Don Berthiaume.
"The Bureau of Prisons is responsible for the health and safety of individuals in its custody. If an improperly authorized or contaminated product is being purchased and distributed throughout the federal system, the consequences could be extremely serious," the whistleblower warned, according to a copy of the complaint reviewed by CBS News.
A BOP spokesperson told CBS News the agency introduced nicotine pouches into commissaries to combat the trafficking of contraband tobacco and nicotine products by criminal organizations inside federal prisons. "BOP has suspended all additional purchasing of these products until further notice while under review," the spokesperson said.
The company supplying the prisons, SHFT Holdings Enterprise LLC, was incorporated in Florida one week after the BOP published a nationwide request for information on May 15 that asked about vendors who could produce "FDA-authorized nicotine pouch products" to sell to federal prisoners. The company's website domain was created on May 7. A copy of the BOP's trust fund manual approved by Bureau of Prisons Director William Marshall, also dated May 7, shows that amendments were made on that date to permit the sale of nicotine pouches in commissaries.
The decision to suspend purchasing came after BOP consulted with the FDA during the week, and a legal review of existing inventory was still ongoing, a source with knowledge of the procurement told CBS News. That source added that no illnesses or adverse effects have been reported by anyone who may have used the products.
Kevin Mastaler, listed as the main point of contact on registration and BOP sales records for the product, contacted CBS News by email after publication and said that SHFT learned of the opportunity from the May 15 request for information.