Jail guard dismissed for allegedly smuggling heroin

PORTLAND – A corrections officer at the Cumberland County Jail has been put on administrative leave for allegedly smuggling heroin and tobacco into the jail for inmates.

Sheriff Mark Dion said Wednesday an internal investigation revealed that the guard received the contraband from family and friends of inmates who paid him to smuggle it into the jail.

No drugs were found during a search Tuesday night, Dion said, but the officer is thought to have brought in 30 to 40 doses of heroin on at least four occasions. The employee was paid $60 to $100 each time, the sheriff said.

Dion declined to identify the officer, but said he is asking prosecutors to pursue bribery charges.

He said the incidents underscore the growing problem with drugs – especially heroin – in Portland. Police say 14 people have died of drug overdoses in the city so far this year, the latest on Monday when a 29-year-old man died of a suspected cocaine overdose.

“Addiction doesn’t stop at the jailhouse door,” Dion said.

The incident also draws attention to staffing problems at the jail, which has openings for 40 officers.

Dion said four people working at the jail have resigned or been dismissed in the past couple of months for improper or illegal conduct.

Officials said one officer was summonsed recently for allegedly giving preferential treatment to an inmate in exchange for a drawing of a tattoo. Another officer resigned and is under investigation for allegedly assaulting a female inmate.

A medical technician employed by Correctional Medical Services, an outside contractor to the jail, recently was charged with trafficking in prison contraband for allegedly smuggling tobacco into the jail for an inmate.

In the latest incident, Dion said the officer met at public locations outside the jail with friends and family of three different inmates.

Each time, the officer was given a rolled-up cellophane package called a “plug” that investigators believe held loose tobacco and 30 to 40 heroin doses that sell for $25 or $30 each on the street. Dion said the officer may have thought the package held only tobacco, but not illegal drugs.

At one point, the officer suspected that other officers were onto him, and he attempted to stop the operation, Dion said. But the inmates said they would turn him in if he ceased, so he kept on smuggling.

“[The inmates] had very little to lose,” Dion said. “But he had very much to lose, and was therefore in the control of the inmates.”

Maj. Jeff Newton of the Sheriff’s Department said visitors to the jail now go through metal detectors, but are not subject to physical searches. Employees are not searched.

Dion said he would like to get a drug-detecting dog to help stop the flow of drugs and other contraband into the jail.