A Gainesville man allegedly conspired with a Georgia Department of Corrections inmate and others to traffic drugs, according to indictments unsealed last week.

Ruben Ruiz, also known as “Flaco” and “Scrappy,” 34, was implicated in a prison-based crime ring involving a dozen people around the Atlanta area, according to federal authorities.

According to the indictments, Valdosta State Prison inmate Donald Howard Hinley “coordinated a network of illegal drug suppliers and couriers” including Ruiz.

“With their assistance, Hinley routinely brokered illegal drug transactions in the Atlanta metropolitan area and in other areas of Georgia,” according to the indictment.

Hinley allegedly coordinated these sales using a cellphone that had been smuggled into the prison, according to the indictment.

“Increasingly, GDOC inmates are obtaining and using cellular telephones to further their criminal activities while incarcerated,” according to the indictment. “Cellular telephones pose a significant risk to institutional safety and security as well as public safety.”

Ruiz has been charged with conspiring to distribute at least 50 grams of methamphetamine. He was paroled in March 2014 from Georgia Department of Corrections custody after serving nine years of a 20-year sentence for an armed robbery committed in Colquitt County, according to Georgia Department of Corrections data..   

If convicted, Ruiz and others have been ordered to forfeit any proceeds from any alleged criminal activity.