Attempt to bring drugs into jail via string, outside window thwarted
(Photo above: The window circled in red is the window where three incarcerated men were allegedly attempting to make a hole under its frame to drop a handmade string four stories down to the street level.)
A plan to get narcotics into the Chelan County Regional Justice Center using a handmade string, a hole under a window frame and two alleged accomplices standing below the window was thwarted recently by alert jail staff.
On Aug. 28, staff learned from phone records that three men being held in the jail had allegedly hatched such a plan. The jail routinely monitors phone calls made by the incarcerated. The caller gave a specific time when the attempt would be made that day.
“People held in the jail know we monitor their calls; they are warned every time they use our phone systems that we may be recording them or monitoring them live,” said Corrections Deputy Jacob Lewis, who leads the jail’s drug interdiction program. “First they try to talk in code, saying words that don’t fit the conversation. Then, at some point, they slip up, giving away details because they think they’re getting away with something.”
In this case, using the date and time supplied by the caller, jail staff monitored live security feeds, which soon showed three incarcerated men in a jail dorm gaining access to an unused, secure room that had been padlocked. The lock appears to have been jimmied using handmade tools, Lewis said.
“Another giveaway was the other incarcerated men in the dorm jumping up and down, cheering,” Lewis added.
Meanwhile, outside jail cameras also showed a man and a woman on Washington Street, at street level below the window at about 8:30 p.m., eagerly looking up at the fourth floor.
Joining them outside the jail were three officers from the Wenatchee Police Department, who detained the pair. Police confiscated a straw packed with matches and what is believed to be crushed Suboxone pills, an opioid.
Inside the jail, corrections deputies detained the men while they were allegedly working on a 2- to 3-inch hole under the window frame. The trio had made it about half-way through the 18-inch window seal, Lewis said. The jail confiscated a handmade string made from fabric in the jail that was about 40 feet long. Tied to the end was a pencil.
“We were able to provide a coordinated effort among the jail, Rivercom and the Wenatchee Police Department,” Lewis said. “I watched the five suspects go from being all giddy and happy to being very confused and surprised by the jail deputies and police officers surrounding them.”
The confiscated crushed pills were sent away to a state crime lab for testing. No charges have been filed on the two people arrested outside the jail; the Prosecutor’s Office is awaiting the results from the lab to file charges. The three incarcerated men have been segregated from the rest of the jail population; they too may face additional charges from the county.
This is the second time in about six years that someone has tried to use a handmade string to bring narcotics through a window. The first attempt was successful; corrections deputies located the drugs inside a dorm. The telltale string was found hanging out a window on the east side of the jail.
Preventing the drugs from getting into the jail this time shows how far the jail’s drug interdiction program, now six years old, has come, said Chris Sharp, director of the Chelan County Regional Justice Center.
“People suffering from addiction will go to great lengths to feed their needs,” Sharp said. “I am very proud of our dedicated staff for being so vigilant that they were able to stop this attempt. I am also grateful that the many hours of hard work put into our drug interdiction program are paying off. We will never know how many lives have been saved due to our efforts to combat contraband being smuggled into the facility.”
Last Updated: 09/23/2024 10:52 AM
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The Canvassing Board of Chelan County, pursuant to RCW 29A.60.160, will hold public meetings at the dates and times listed below. The meetings of the Canvassing Board are open, public meetings under the applicable provisions of chapter 42.30 RCW, and each meeting shall be continued until the activity for which the meeting is held has been completed.