Authorities investigating drug smuggling at Lucas County jail

TOLEDO, Ohio (WTVG) - The Lucas County Sheriff’s Office has launched an investigation into who is smuggling illegal drugs into the jail.

A jail administrator says if its an outside person bring drugs in, they’ll have to add additional safety measures

“All their items are put on a belt and it’s run through a x-ray machine. So everything is screened at our front desk for employees,” said Deputy Chief Wes Bombrys with the Lucas County Sheriff’s Office.

But somehow inmates were given drugs, jail administrators tell 13 Action News.

“It was last week sometime. We did a shake down, in the process of doing the shakedown we discovered drugs within the tank,” said Bombrys. “We started investigation to see how they got in. It was what I would categorize as a small amount of drugs found in the jail.”

The tank is a holding cell for inmates. Investigators say drugs in the jail is a safety risk.

“It’s a concern any time we have drugs in the jail, because inmates can get it, they can abuse it, put themselves in danger,” said Bombrys. “They can be in a position where it ends up threatening our COs because they’re under an influence of drugs.”

Anyone who comes into the jail is required to have their items scanned and they must walk through a metal detector.

“Our employees, our medical staff, anybody as far as pastors coming in, they have access,” said Bombrys. “Attorneys coming to see their clients, checks are done on them. They have to provide certain type of information to to us.”

We asked how officials can stop the drugs from coming in.

“It’s a matter of us doing our job better and discovering how they’re finding it and putting a stop to it,” said Bombrys.

The Lucas county jail has a body scanner which detects drugs. It’s used for inmates when they are booked.

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