One of the ‘more creative ways’ Sedgwick County sheriff has seen drugs end up in jail

Inmates started vomiting, passing out and having drug-induced psychosis this week that was caused by smoking paper laced with K-2 synthetic marijuana, Sedgwick County Sheriff Jeff Easter said on Friday.

The Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office first received a tip in September about K-2 being shipped into the Sedgwick County Jail. The liquified K-2 was being sprayed onto letters and apparent legal mail and sent to inmates at the jail. The laced paper can have a waxy appearance and discolorations, but Easter believes some laced paper shows no signs. The sheriff’s office started working with the Kansas Department of Corrections, which had been dealing with a similar problem for months, and that led the investigation to a west Wichita motel where two suspects were arrested on Friday, Easter said.

“We believe that these two folks were sending it to the Kansas Department of Corrections inmates and our inmates,” he said.

Suspected dynamite was also found in the motel room, Easter said.

The KDOC, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the sheriff’s office were still at the hotel on Friday evening, he said.

At the jail, seven inmates had reactions to smoking K-2 within a 24-hour period between Wednesday and Thursday. One inmate was hospitalized.

The first medical call inside the jail happened at around 2:05 a.m. on Wednesday.

“Where we had an inmate, the term that was being used was overdosed, you can’t really overdose on K-2,” Easter said. “But was having adverse reactions due to smoking K-2. Those adverse reactions included vomiting, passing out and then also appearing to have a drug-induced psychosis.”

Easter said officers believe one of the inmates who had a reaction had been having the K-2 sent directly to him. The inmates having reactions ranged in age from 27 to 56.

The last inmate having a reaction occurred at 1:38 p.m. on Thursday. At 4 p.m. on Thursday, officers searched the pod to which K-2 was suspected of having been mailed.

Inmate workers then distributed the K-2 to other pods, Easter said.

Officers found K-2 on paper and evidence “related to the distribution of K-2.” Two other pods were also searched and more K-2 was found.

Easter said they found 70 sheets of suspicious paper. Some of the paper has been tested and found to have K-2. At the jail, a sheet of K-2 laced paper has a value of about $500, Easter said.

If all the suspected paper is laced, then that would have a sale value of about $35,000. Paper laced with methamphetamine was also found.

Sending laced paper will be nearly impossible starting in January.

The sheriff’s office will have Securus Technologies, which handles inmate phone calls, scan incoming mail and forward on inmates the copied paper.

Easter said inmates have brought in contraband in different ways in the past, including drugs being left in public areas where inmates cleaned and then being taken back to their cells.

“This is another mechanism for them to introduce,” he said. “This is by far one of the more creative ways to do it, ‘cause we hadn’t really thought of this before.”

Inmates are also creative in starting a fire to smoke the K-2, he said. One way they do it is by causing a spark from an electrical outlet.

K-2 is illegal in Kansas.

Evidence will be presented to the Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office for possible charges.

This story was originally published December 4, 2020 at 6:15 PM.