Drugs stashed in milk delivery

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - Bigwigs at Albuquerque’s main jail are admitting they goofed. They were letting an inmate get special deliveries because of a medical condition and they weren't being checked, but after a tip came in, officials found drugs in one of the deliveries.

These Peptamen milk cartons were meant for Joseph Taylor, an MDC inmate with a medical condition that requires him to use the vitamin drinks.  But why were family members delivering milk to an inmate?

“It takes a while to get this product so in the interim the family would deliver an amount to get him through until the order came in,” MDC Chief Ramon Rustin explained.

For a few months Taylor has been getting the supplements but when his cousin Dominique Lueras and her friends delivered this box Monday, officials knew this was no ordinary shipment.

“We found tobacco, marijuana, a lighter and Suboxone,” said Rustin.

That’s drug that gives a meth-like high.

After getting a tip, jail officials say they recorded phone calls between Dominique Lueras and another inmate, Andrew Perez, planning the whole thing.

“Inmates have 24/7 to try and figure out ways to smuggle contraband into the institution, we have to stay one step ahead of them,” said Rustin.

But, they are not sure if they did in this case. Investigators are trying to figure out if other drugs came in previous Peptamen deliveries. Turns out those hadn't been checked.

“In this case we dropped the ball,” said Rustin. “Anything that is passed on from the family to the inmates, such as mail and those things, we have to inspect.”

Rustin said this isn't the only thing investigators are trying to figure out.  “We are working with the Sheriff's office to actually find out how involved this is. I heard there are some other inmates involved in this scheme.”

The three women and the two male inmates all face serious charges now for the drug smuggling.

The jail chief says his officers repeatedly find drugs in packages and recently found drugs dropped on the side of the road; left for an inmate to scoop up when he was let out on work detail.