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Authorities find drugs hidden inside Va. inmate’s prosthetic leg

COs raided the inmate’s cell and found between three to seven grams of cocaine inside the prosthetic leg

Keith Epps
The Free Lance-Star, Fredericksburg, Va.

Stafford, Va. — Area narcotics detectives are investigating a suspected drug distribution operation inside the Rappahannock Regional Jail that was discovered last month when cocaine was found inside an inmate’s prosthetic leg, court records show.

According to an affidavit for a search warrant filed last week in Stafford Circuit Court by Detective R.D. Haney III, correctional officers received an anonymous tip about drugs being stashed in a certain cell. Jail officers raided the cell and found between three to seven grams of cocaine inside the prosthetic leg, the affidavit states.

The names of the leg owner and others being investigated are listed in the search warrant, but are not being printed because apparently none of them had been charged in connection with this case as of Wednesday. The inmate with the prosthetic leg was put in jail by the Spotsylvania Sheriff’s Office on Jan. 11 on charges of pandering and possessing marijuana.

Haney wrote that he was contacted by a Spotsylvania detective on Jan. 16 and told that an inmate was selling cocaine in the jail.

Police proceeded to listen to numerous phone calls involving the inmate, his roommate and several people who were not incarcerated at the time. The affidavit states that the inmate’s girlfriend was collecting money from various people via a mobile payment service called CASH APP after being directed to do so by the inmate.

After the money was received by the girlfriend, the drugs were distributed to inmates in the jail. The affidavit did not explain how the drugs got in the jail in the first place.

The phone calls Haney references in the affidavit show that one inmate got his mother to send money to the app after convincing her it was for the commissary. In an unrelated call, the inmate’s cellmate was heard telling his girlfriend that he gets more “wasted” in the jail than he had been on the outside.

That girlfriend is now in the jail herself after being arrested on unrelated drug charges last week.

The search warrant allowed Haney to examine the CASH APP account of “IrishRican150,” the user account name of the girlfriend of the inmate with the prosthetic leg.

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©2019 The Free Lance-Star (Fredericksburg, Va.)

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