AUGUSTA, Maine — The Maine Department of Corrections announced Friday that its Inner Perimeter Security network has reported three recent drug busts that yielded Suboxone strips, a white powdery substance believed to be cocaine and crushed oxycodone.
The first bust happened on April 21, when IPS network officials, working with the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency, intercepted Suboxone that a mother and daughter reportedly tried to smuggle for a family member during a Maine State Prison visit.
Officials foiled a plan for the daughter to pass along — with a kiss — nine strips of the drug Suboxone to the family member, who is a prisoner, Scott Fish, Corrections Department director of special projects, said Friday.
Both mother and daughter were arrested, Fish said. He said that the identities of the two suspects are being withheld because charges against them are still pending.
Fish said that corrections officials are recommending both be banned from visiting any Maine Department of Corrections facility permanently.
The next bust happened on April 26, just before prisoners who were displaced by an appliance fire were allowed to return to their quarters at Southern Maine Women’s Re-Entry Center, Fish said.
K-9 officers who were using a dog to sweep the facility found in its common areas a substance believed to be cocaine and crushed oxycodone, he said.
That case remains under investigation.
The third and most recent incident occurred on Wednesday when Correctional Investigator David Verrier and Officer Joseph Salisbury, working on information they received, intercepted six strips of Suboxone.
Maine Correctional Center prisoner Jason Pete, 31, of the Orrington area has been charged with trafficking in prison contraband, a Class C felony, for making arrangements with an outside party to smuggle the Suboxone into the facility.
One strip of Suboxone has a street value of about $10 but its prison value is $100-$120 per strip, Fish said.