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Bay County Sheriff: Drugs Sprayed On Mail Sent To Inmates

Prison bars
Michael Coghlan/Wikimedia Commons

Florida authorities are charging dozens of people as part of a sophisticated drug-smuggling operation that consisted of spraying synthetic drugs on mail sent to inmates.

Bay County Sheriff Tommy Ford on Friday announced that 27 people had been arrested as part of a year-long investigation called "You've Got Mail." It began when authorities found a drug called Suboxone on a strip of plastic placed in between pieces of a card sent to a county jail inmate. Bay County is in north Florida.

Investigators say that two inmates at the center of the operation had family members and associates mail synthetic-drug laced paper to themselves and others. The two inmates cut the paper into squares of different sizes and sold it.

Major Jimmy Stanford told the Panama City News Herald that additional arrests are pending.

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