Authorities say they disrupted a scheme by a Florida prison guard to smuggle a half-pound of illegal drugs into the Suwannee Correctional Institution by hiding a package under the folds of her stomach.
The Columbia County Sheriff’s Office said it arrested Jakaleb Cahree Thomas, 28, of Lake City in an investigation that involved an informant who delivered the drugs to Thomas in a trash can outside her home. A Florida Highway Patrol surveillance plane tracked the guard’s movements before any drugs were smuggled inside the prison.
Thomas told investigators that an inmate, who wasn’t identified in court records, paid her $300 to bring the drugs, which included 42 grams of meth and 211 grams of marijuana, into the state prison in Lake City in northern Florida.
Thomas, who weighs 450 pounds, said she had planned to hide the drugs under her stomach or place the drugs inside her body. Investigators found text messages on her phone discussing the narcotics deal, according to court records.
Thomas started work as a prison guard Jan. 10, earning an annual salary of $45,760, according to state payroll records. She told a judge she can not afford to pay for a private defense lawyer. Her public defender, Clifton William “Cliff” Wilson Jr. of Lake City, did not immediately respond to a requestto discuss the case.
Thomas was being held in the Columbia County Jail this week on a $333,000 bond. She was facing charges of trafficking in methamphetamine, possession of a controlled substance without a prescription and public order crimes. Deputies arrested Thomas on March 6.
Court records show the drug deal unraveled after it was discovered by the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office and the Drug Enforcement Administration working on the Gainesville-Alachua County Drug Task Force. Two informants worked with agents and notified them about the prison scheme, according to court records.
The drugs were tightly wrapped in duct tape and concealed in a yellow grocery bag, which authorities said was commonly used for smuggling drugs behind bars.
Investigators said that on Thursday, the informants told the prison inmate by phone they could deliver the drugs to Thomas at her home to sneak into the prison. They put the package in a trash can and texted a photo to the inmate, who relayed the information to the guard, according to court records..
As Thomas left her shift at the prison, minutes after the drugs were dropped off at her home, sheriff’s deputies and federal agents secretly watched her, as a highway patrol plane flew overhead. When she arrived home, she went straight to the trash can and removed the yellow bag with the drugs, as authorities rushed to arrest her, court records show..
“Jakaleb then admitted that she was supposed to bring the narcotics into the prison herself,” Columbia County Sheriff’s Office investigator Shane Hartopp wrote in his arrest report.
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