By Nicole Perez
Albuquerque Journal
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A man who works for a company that contracts with the Metropolitan Detention Center smuggled dozens of strips of Suboxone, a prescription drug, into the jail and sold them to an inmate, according to the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office.
Deputies received a tip that the man, who is an Aramark employee assigned to do laundry at the jail, was smuggling Suboxone into the facility. Suboxone is a controlled substance often prescribed to heroin addicts.
The employee, known as “Shaggy,” was later identified as 23-year-old Nicholas Perea.
Several inmates confirmed the tip, according to a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court.
Deputies discovered Perea was planning to smuggle in Suboxone on Thursday and detained him when he arrived, according to the complaint.
Perea told deputies that an inmate named Steven Mertz, 26, asked Perea if he would bring Suboxone into the jail for extra money in March and he agreed.
Perea continued to bring the Suboxone into the jail, according to the complaint. He would put the drug – which comes in sublingual strips – in a tissue, then put the tissue in his wallet and enter the jail, he told deputies.
He said he sneaked in about 63 strips total and was expecting to receive more than $1,000 in return, according to the complaint.
When deputies interviewed Mertz, he told them he exchanged five of the strips for food and sold seven others. Police found that he was hiding 15 strips in a body cavity.
Perea and Mertz were charged with trafficking a controlled substance, bringing contraband into a place of imprisonment and conspiracy.
Perea was booked into the county jail and Mertz was rebooked, according to jail records. Perea was released Thursday, according to jail records.