By Daniela Deane
The Washington Post
Three inmates and a 22-year-old acquaintance have been charged with smuggling heroin into the Alexandria jail by U.S. mail several times this spring, the sheriff’s office said yesterday.
Alexandria Sheriff Dana A. Lawhorne said the four had devised a “very ingenious and very sneaky system” to smuggle heroin into the jail through the mail system. He declined to give details because the investigation is ongoing.
A special grand jury charged Heidi Farrish, 22, of Centreville with four felony drug counts, including conspiracy to distribute heroin, distribution of heroin and delivering drugs to an inmate. Farrish was arrested last week in Prince William County and is being held at the Alexandria jail.
The three inmates — Camilo Gomez, 21, of Centreville, Mark Esposito, 23, of Manassas and Jesse Boner, 30, of Dumfries — were charged with possession of heroin while an inmate and delivery of heroin to an inmate. Gomez was also charged with conspiracy to distribute heroin.
The felony charges against the four carry penalties ranging from five to 40 years in prison.
Prosecutors said the defendants will appear in Alexandria Circuit Court this week.
The indictments allege that from March to June, Farrish conspired with Gomez, Esposito and Boner to have heroin delivered to the jail. Lawhorne would not disclose how much heroin got into the jail, saying only that it happened on “several occasions.”
“She was providing heroin, and they were paying for it,” Lawhorne said.
“The fact they were able to do this troubles me immensely,” he said. “When people are brought here and left in my custody, we are to provide a 100 percent secure environment.”
Lawhorne would not say whether the defendants distributed the heroin to other prisoners. Only one of the inmates was charged with conspiracy to distribute, however, signaling that the heroin was probably mostly for their own use.
The plot was uncovered by a member of the Alexandria police department’s vice and narcotics unit. Police would not discuss the investigation.
Lawhorne said that because of the incident, incoming mail for detainees at the facility will soon be reduced to “bare essentials.”
“Basically you’re only going to be allowed to mail an 8-by-11 sheet of paper in a plain Number 10 envelope,” Lawhorne said, “a clean sheet of paper that can be held up to a light so you can see through it.”
He said that although he’s sympathetic to relatives and friends of inmates who want to mail things to prisoners, he’s “got a jail to run.”
He said the changes will be implemented after an independent review of the heroin incident is completed by Arlington County Sheriff Beth Arthur.
Lawhorne said he promised Alexandria residents a review of security procedures at the jail when he took office in January 2006. He said that a vulnerability assessment of the facility was done last year and that authorities are implementing many of its suggestions.
The constant challenge in housing criminals, however, is staying “one step ahead of them,” he said.
“These are people with a lot of time on their hands,” Lawhorne said. “They’ve got nothing better to do than to figure out ways to circumvent what we’re doing.”
Copyright 2007 Washington Post