By Greg Welter
Chico Enterprise-Record
WILLOWS, Calif. — Two Glenn County inmates are suspected of smoking marijuana at the jail Tuesday.
A tower guard noticed suspicious activity in an exercise yard, where corrections officers said they detected the odor of burning marijuana.
Inmate Saul Perez, 23, who was previously convicted for bringing pot into the jail, was found in possession of marijuana, and a lighter was found wedged into a crack in a wall near a toilet.
Authorities said a second inmate, William Lloyd Coats, 45, had also been smoking pot. Both men tested positive for the drug.
Perez was arrested for bringing drugs into the jail. His bail was increased to $30,000.
Additional charges may be lodged against Coats, who was arrested by Orland police in July on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, false imprisonment and making terrorist threats.
Coats is also being held on a federal warrant from the U.S. Marshal’s Service.
Sheriff Larry Jones said an investigation is under way to determine how the inmates, neither of whom has been outside the jail since their arrest, obtained the marijuana.
Jones said it could have been brought in by one of several inmates who serve time at the jail on weekends only.
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