This article is part of an ongoing New Bedford Light series examining the far-reaching impacts of addiction.
Since 2013, the Bristol County District Attorney has filed criminal charges in about 60 cases under the state law that prohibits bringing drugs or other contraband into a prison. The court cases shed light on the drug market inside the Jail and House of Correction in Dartmouth and the Ash Street Jail in New Bedford — and the work of the sheriff’s Special Investigations Unit to interdict the drugs. Here are some of the stories the court cases reveal.
2022: Lofted over a wall
On the partly sunny afternoon of Aug. 30, 2022, two packages flew over the 30-foot wall from the employee parking lot into an exercise yard at the Ash Street Jail. That was caught on surveillance video, as was an inmate picking up the packages.
Later, investigators reported, one inmate, whose phone calls with an outside associate were intercepted, was found to be holding 134 Suboxone strips along with a number of other items, including bags of loose tobacco and a Snapple bottle containing a liquid that smelled like alcohol.
Charges are pending in District Court against a 30-year-old man accused of tossing the stuff into the yard. Court records show no charges brought against the inmate.
2021: A nighttime handoff
In early March 2021, at least one inmate letter and several monitored phone calls to and from the Jail and House of Correction in Dartmouth told of a scheme to smuggle Suboxone strips in with the help of an employee of the company that provides food services to the jail. According to the investigators’ report, $1,000 cash was conveyed from one inmate’s mother to another inmate’s girlfriend, and then, in a nighttime handoff on a street in Fall River, to the Keefe Commissary Network employee.
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The next day, after the employee was seen delivering canteen orders to three inmates at their cells, investigators called him into an office for questioning. In an order intended for one inmate, investigators found 16 orange Suboxone strips bundled in plastic wrap in an “open noodle soup bag.”
That inmate’s mail was opened, revealing dreams shared with the woman who was said to have dropped off the money in Fall River: “Babe let’s get the rest of my bail and a quick $10,000 saved to move on… so I’m coming home to my future wife and solid grounds babe.”
Investigators recommended charges against three inmates and the woman. According to court records, they were not charged. The investigator’s file suggests that the employee — who admitted his role in the smuggling and to bringing in drugs once before — lost his job. The criminal case against him was dismissed.
The New Bedford man, who was 21 at the time, told investigators he was making $400 a week on the job, felt he needed the money from the scheme, but regretted the whole affair.
“Biggest mistake I’ve ever made in my [expletive] life,” he said.
2020: A drop at the gazebo
With an inmate work crew assigned to power-wash a gazebo at the Easton Housing Authority in October 2020, a pre-trial detainee at the House of Correction got busy working the phone. Investigators reported he was hoping to make $30,000 selling Suboxone that would be dropped off by an outside associate at the job site.
But the person supposed to make the drop had a question: what’s a “gazebo”?
“Tell him it’s a thing that people go up and sit in,” the detainee told his girlfriend, who was the contact for the drug dropper.
“Listen, tell him that he can put it in the garbage,” the detainee suggests.
“He literally doesn’t know,” the girlfriend says. “I tried to tell him.”
“Oh my god.”
“He sounds so confused.”
“There’s $30,000 on the line, just saying…”
The gazebo issue was straightened out for the drop at Parker Terrace in Easton on Oct. 22. SIU officers were there in an unmarked car. They watched one member of the work crew hand something to another. They got out of their car and ushered one crew member into a bathroom for a search. From a body cavity, the inmate pulled out two latex glove fingers stuffed with 130 Suboxone strips wrapped in plastic.
At the time, the SIU report said, strips were selling for $200 to $700 a strip inside.
The detainee and a member of the work crew were written up for disciplinary reports. The outside associate who dropped off the package was charged with three counts. Prosecutors dropped the case.
2019: Hidden in court clothes
In winter 2019, investigators picked up on a plan to smuggle drugs into the House of Correction. The drugs would be hidden in clothing, dropped off for an inmate, ostensibly for a court appearance.
Phone calls show one inmate working with his girlfriend on the outside to have the clothes dropped off for another inmate. A second person on the outside would make the drop.
On Feb. 26, the man dropped off the clothes at the security reception area. Stitched into the pants’ hem, investigators found 10 Suboxone strips. The man told officers he did not know the person for whom he was dropping off the clothes.
Investigators recommended charges against all four people involved, but court records show a case brought only against the man who brought the clothes. In November 2019, prosecutors dropped the case.
2014: An aunt, a nephew, flying kites
It was not a great time of year for flying kites, and not a good time of day to be searching a rooftop at the Jail and House of Correction.
Shortly before 7 p.m. on Feb. 23, 2014, two SIU investigators were up on the roof, acting on information gathered inside. They found two “kites” there, both marked with notes from one inmate to another. One kite was attached to three small blue envelopes of heroin. The other kite was attached to two envelopes, which also contained heroin.
Kites had apparently been flying between Victoria Travassos and her nephew, both held in North Dartmouth. She was in pre-trial detention on drug charges to which she would later plead guilty. He was serving a sentence for vandalizing property.
At least one kite reached the intended person, while at least two got stuck on the roof. A search of the woman’s cell turned up a kite from her nephew with a note: “Yo it’s your nephew, come outside at 12:30 and make sure.”
The woman denied flying any kites. But investigators reported that the evidence showed she had come into the jail with envelopes of heroin and was distributing them to other inmates.
Officers wrote up a disciplinary report on the nephew, who was 25, after a cell search turned up an array of pills: Motrin, Tylenol, the pain medication Lyrica and the blood pressure medication and sedative Clonidine.
His aunt, 31 years old, was charged with bringing drugs into a prison and possession of a Class A substance. She pleaded guilty and was sentenced to two years, all suspended but for 60 days of time already served, and probation.
2013: Posting bail, then revoking it, for a deal
In summer 2013, SIU officers uncovered a scheme orchestrated by one pre-trial detainee to get another detainee released on bail, then returned to the Jail and House of Correction days later — this time carrying drugs.
Investigators’ reports say they intercepted letters and phone calls from Joshua Downs, of Chelsea, who was then 39 and awaiting trial on felony charges for dealing cocaine and heroin. The reports alleged that Downs arranged with three outside associates to bail out another detainee, Thomas Telford, then 30, for $500.
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Investigators reported they were watching as the associates posted bail and picked up Telford at New Bedford District Court on July 9. They were watching when the associates returned to court on July 15 to revoke his bail. They were watching as Telford was brought back to jail. Correctional officers watched as he went to the toilet and dropped three packages containing a total of 53 pills: Suboxone, which also comes in pill form, and oxycodone, an opioid pain medication.
It was the rare instance of a jailhouse smuggling case that went beyond District Court, as both detainees were indicted in Superior Court. Downs pleaded guilty to one of three counts, while the other two charges were filed for a year — meaning they were suspended and would be dismissed if there were no other new accusations in that time. Downs was sentenced to three years in state prison, to be served at the same time as a 10-year sentence in another drug case.
Telford pleaded guilty to three counts and was sentenced to two to four years in state prison.
Charges were brought against two of the three associates. All charges but one were dismissed for each defendant. The other count was continued without a finding.
Email Arthur Hirsch at ahirsch@newbedfordlight.org.
