Six Floridians have been arrested trying to smuggle contraband into jails this week in two separate incidents.
Three men from Pinellas County are facing felony charges after trying to get marijuana into jail from the outside using a cord, authorities said. Three other people were arrested in Marion County when a woman tried to pay a work farm worker with narcotics to get contraband to her husband in jail, authorities said.
In Pinellas County, Eric Scott Snook, 41, filled a plastic bag with $1,500 of marijuana and other items to give to inmates on Monday. He attached it to a cord that two inmates were dangling from a sixth-floor rain drainage hole, the Tampa Bay Times reported. When the cord snapped, Snook ran away, authorities said.
Inmate Phillip William Henderson,38, made a prepaid call to Snook, begging him to come back even though he knew the call was being recorded.
"Eric, listen to me, dog," Henderson said in the prepaid call to Snook, the newspaper reported. "You've got to come back. We can't leave it (lying) on the ground, bro."
But Snook refused.
Deputies found the bag on a fourth-floor overhang Monday night. Henderson and inmate Mark "Red" Keating, 45, were charged and Snook was arrested Wednesday, the newspaper reported. It was not immediately known if they had attorneys.
Authorities believe that they have smuggled items into jail up to nine times over two months.
Three people were also arrested in Marion County for trying to smuggle contraband into the jail through a University of Florida Plant Science Research and Education farm, authorities said.
The Marion County Sheriff's Office learned that Cynthia Fletcher, 58, brought illegal narcotics to Marcus Brody Hilton, 34, in exchange for Hilton bringing contraband to Fletcher's husband, Danny Fletcher.
Hilton works for the UF Florida Inmate Work Farm in Orange Lake, deputies said.
Hilton received six pills from Cynthia Fletcher in exchange for delivering contraband items to her 32-year-old husband, who is in jail on a probation violation.
The contraband was 13 cans of snuff type tobacco, four 16-ounce Mountain Dew sodas, a pair of Nike shoes, a can of Folgers coffee and seven bags of different kinds of candies, The Ocala Star Banner reported.
All three of them are facing a charge of conspiracy to introduce contraband into a correctional facility. Hilton will also face additional charges of possession of narcotics and drug paraphernalia, deputies said.
Hilton is being held in jail on a $10,500 bond. Cynthia Fletcher's bond is $5,000, and Danny Fletcher is being held in jail without bond. It was not immediately known if they had attorneys.
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Photo Credit: Pinellas County Sheriff's Office