Two Counties Combat Drug Smuggling in Detention Facilities

Four employees at a Milwaukee County detention facility have been suspended amid a drug smuggling investigation, while Cook County Jail officials have uncovered a new method of smuggling narcotics through drug-soaked books sent directly from bookstores.

In Milwaukee, the probe at the Community Reintegration Center in Franklin began after a correctional captain observed suspicious inmate behavior during routine daily surveillance camera reviews on May 9. Staff conducted a sweep in the dormitory and found contraband including makeshift weapons and illegal drugs. On May 13, the investigation expanded to two housing units where additional illegal drugs were discovered.

Four employees are on paid suspensions, though it remains unclear how involved they were in the alleged drug smuggling ring. The Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office is carrying out the investigation.

The facility was placed on lockdown for several days as the sweep was conducted, restricting prisoner movement, suspending family visitation, and limiting personal phone calls. Narcotic-detection K-9 teams were deployed throughout the facility during that time. Operations have since resumed with enhanced security measures, including unannounced searches, expanded canine inspections, and reducing staff time on a single assignment to 60 days.

County employees are not searched when they enter the facility, though vendors, contractors, and visitors are searched upon arrival. A body scanner was ordered before the drug smuggling investigation and is expected to arrive in the coming weeks, to be installed in the facility's booking area. Officials have not yet determined how they would plan to search staff.

In Cook County, jail officials have discovered a new smuggling method where criminals saturate book pages with synthetic narcotics and return the books to the store. A smuggler then asks the bookstore to mail the book directly to a detainee, with criminals believing a book sent straight from a seller would face less scrutiny. Officials said a drug-soaked piece of paper can sell for thousands of dollars inside the jail, and the page is smoked to get high.

Previously discovered substances at the facility included pesticides and fentanyl. In response, Cook County has invested more than $2 million on detection machines that can identify small amounts of a foreign substance on paper or card, in addition to drug-sniffing dogs. Officials said the machines are more accurate and are catching drugs that might otherwise have slipped into the system.