By Uriel J. Garcia
The Santa Fe New Mexican
SANTA FE, N.M. — The Rio Arriba County Sheriff’s Office said it raided the Tierra Amarilla jail more than a week ago after getting information that jail guards were smuggling drugs into the detention center. But a search warrant inventory later filed in state District Court indicates no drugs were found.
The warrant said deputies were looking for drugs, weapons and money during the May 27 operation.
Jake Arnold, a spokesman for the sheriff’s office, said Thursday it’s possible that inmates were tipped off prior to the raid.
He said the jail’s water system had been shut off in an effort to prevent inmates or staff from flushing any contraband down toilets. But when deputies arrived, they heard some toilets being flushed, Arnold said. Even without water pressure, he said, toilets still had enough water for one flush.
Arnold said Sheriff Tommy Rodella, whose house was raided by the FBI on Wednesday morning in a separate case, was not available for comment. A phone call to the jail director, Larry DeYapp, wasn’t returned Wednesday afternoon.
The warrant states that a deputy learned from a confidential source employed by the jail that correctional officers were involved in smuggling or were allowing drugs to be smuggled into the jail.
The sheriff’s office started monitoring jail phone calls and heard a correctional officer ask his mother to smuggle narcotics into the jail, the warrant states.
In a separate phone call, a deputy heard an unidentified woman discuss narcotics with a jail inmate. The deputy spoke with the woman, who then served as a confidential source in the case, telling officials that inmates who were allowed to work outside the jail were smuggling drugs into the jail. She said jail guards didn’t do anything to keep the drugs out of the jail, the warrant says.
The warrant names Julian Martinez, a former corrections officer, as a suspect. Martinez had been arrested in connection with a Cordova drug raid in early May.
According to an arrest warrant related to the Cordova raid against Martinez, the former jail guard allegedly sold cocaine to an undercover deputy during an investigation of drug trafficking at a Cordova residence.