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10 inmates charged in alleged jail drug-smuggling scheme

Posted at 6:23 AM, Nov 17, 2019
and last updated 2019-11-17 06:23:09-05

JEFFERSONVILLE, Ind. (AP) — Ten inmates at a southern Indiana jail are charged in an alleged scheme that authorities say used codes to help smuggle drugs into the jail.

The Clark County Sheriff’s Office says the inmates worked with an outside contact who picked up drugs and hid them in the jail’s lobby, which inmates cleaned.

Col. Scotty Maples says code words were used in a computer system inmates can access to signal where the drugs would be dropped off in the lobby.

Those included the words “red” and “blue” to signal that drugs would either be in a trash can by a Coke or Pepsi vending machine. Inmates no longer clean the jail lobby in Jeffersonville, just north of Louisville, Kentucky.

The 10 inmates and a 41-year-old man face nearly 60 drug-related felonies.