Sheriff’s Employee Suspected Of Bringing Drugs Into County Jail In Everett

Word in from the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office about the arrest of one of their own.

Around 5:30 p.m. Tuesday night, the Snohomish Regional Drug Task Force, the Snohomish County Violent Offender Task Force, Sheriff’s Office Corrections Bureau staff, as well as Lake Stevens, Marysville, and Mukilteo police departments, responded to the Snohomish County Jail and arrested a 44 year-old employee and eight inmates in connection with introducing contraband into the jail.

Corrections staff became aware of possible narcotics coming into the jail on Sunday, May 3 and immediately contacted the Drug Task Force for assistance with the investigation. More than 10 Drug Task Force detectives began gathering information and working to identify the source of the narcotics entering the facility.

During their investigation, detectives identified a 44 year-old female employee as a possible suspect. She was contacted and interviewed by Drug Task Force detectives on Tuesday and admitted that she was in possession of a controlled substance at her residence in Everett.

Detectives accompanied her to her residence and she gave consent to search and provided an oval shaped package wrapped in what appeared to be a nitrile glove. This packaging is commonly used for smuggling illegal substances internally.

Inside the package, detectives found three substances: 3.8 grams of heroin, .4 grams of buprenorphine, and multiple unidentified pills.

The 44 year-old employee was arrested and booked into the Snohomish County Jail Tuesday night.

The individual arrested was a Corrections Classification Specialist, employed since 2014. Upon her arrest, she was immediately placed on administrative leave.

“I am incredibly proud of and I would like to personally thank the corrections deputy who intercepted the inmate communications and immediately reported it,” said Sheriff Adam Fortney. “Investigations of this sensitivity and magnitude can often times take several months to complete, but because of the partnerships we have built in our law enforcement community we were able to combine resources, identify those involved and make these arrests in less than two weeks. While this is a difficult moment for our organization, I couldn’t be more proud of the response, coordination, and dedication displayed amongst our staff throughout this investigation.”

This is an active investigation.