Dec. 12—Three employees at the Rio Arriba County Jail are on administrative leave following Monday’s raid in which local law enforcement sought the source of drugs entering the jail, where several inmates have died of overdoses in recent years.
The employees have not yet been charged but will be interviewed in connection with an investigation the agency launched about a year ago, said Maj. Lorenzo Aguilar, spokesman for the Rio Arriba County Sheriff’s Office. The investigation culminated Monday in the prison’s unannounced shakedown.
The investigation was prompted in part by several overdose deaths among inmates in the past year, Aguilar said in an interview.
“Our goal is to find out how these drugs are getting there and who are the people bringing drugs in,” he added.
About 50 officers, including some from the Taos County Sheriff’s Office and New Mexico State Police, participated in the jail raid, Aguilar said.
“I have recognized for some time that there is a problem at the detention center, but it has been quite difficult to resolve,” Rio Arriba County Manager Jeremy Maestas wrote in an email Thursday.
“I’m glad law enforcement is investigating some of our employees because if this type of behavior has occurred, it would explain why it has been so difficult to end the drug problem coming into the prison.” Maestas added.
It was unclear Monday how many inmates died of drug overdoses at the facility in the small northern New Mexico community of Tierra Amarilla.
The Rio Grande Sun reported in February 2023 that “at least eight” inmates at the prison had overdosed since October 2020. The newspaper’s Thursday report on this week’s raid placed the number three times higher. Rio Arriba County Detective Manuel Romero said 23 overdoses have been reported at the jail since 2022, the newspaper reported.
The story did not specify whether these overdoses all resulted in death.
County officials were unable to produce a number of overdose deaths among inmates since 2020 in response to The New Mexican’s queries Thursday.
The county keeps data on inmate deaths, but determining which are the result of an overdose “is more complicated,” Maestas said.
“Most prison deaths are litigated, so the cause of death is obviously disputed,” he wrote.
Maestas said he had trouble finding all the reports on the deaths from the state Office of the Medical Examiner to determine which deaths could be attributed to overdoses.
“At this time, it appears that there have been four deaths reported to have been caused by overdoses since 2020,” Maestas wrote.
Rio Arriba County and the jail’s medical provider are facing multiple lawsuits in connection with the deaths, complaints filed by family members who say the government failed in its duty to protect their loved ones after they were taken into custody and that inmates were denied access had been given drugs, which led to their deaths.
In recent years, there have been calls for the facility to install a full-body scanner that would allow prison staff to determine whether incoming inmates are bringing contraband into the prison by swallowing balloons full of drugs.
According to Maestas, the county purchased the scanner about six months ago and installed it in June.
“Since late summer, the county has also increased training for our security staff to give them the tools to better monitor inmates and monitor what is happening in the jail,” he wrote.
Maestas noted in an email Thursday that he has not yet received a full report of what officers found during Monday’s raid, but said he was told law enforcement at least seized:
* 256 blue pills (fentanyl)
* 1.6 grams of suspected methamphetamine
*8 grams of orange powder, believed to be Suboxone (a drug used to treat opioid overdose)
* 4.8 grams of suspected heroin
* 35.6 grams of suspected meth
* 31 grams of an unknown substance
* 20.5 grams of tobacco leaves
* 26.2 grams of unknown substance
*95 Suboxone strips
Maestas wants such shakedowns to continue at the facility, he wrote.
“As district manager, I take this very seriously and will ensure that we continue to work with law enforcement to ensure that anyone who attempts to smuggle narcotics or contraband into our facility will be criminally prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. no matter who they are,” he added.
