PORTLAND — Police search dogs fanned out through Cumberland County Jail this morning to search for drugs after a spike in smuggling.
Corrections officers in the fall had noticed a surge in inmates being under the influence and testing positive for drugs. The officers discovered a new technique being used to smuggle. Inmates have been hiding powder and lately hard-to-detect sublingual strips in the folds of manila envelopes.
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Investigators last week charged four people – two inmates and two people outside the facility – with using the method to smuggle Suboxone, a prescription drug used to treat addiction, into the jail.
Authorities expect more arrests to come. They have also disallowed the manila envelopes and now only allow white, business envelopes into the jail.
Following the announcement this week of the arrests, Cumberland County Sheriff Kevin Joyce announced a sweep of the jail using drug-sniffing dogs from a half-dozen police agencies. Corrections officers also searched the rooms for contraband.
Inmates were transferred to the jail gymnasium while the search was under way. Early on, searchers found some marijuana and some powder in a common area of one of the pods.
The smuggled drugs have been for personal use and for sale and barter within the facility, Joyce said.
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