A guard at the state prison in Newberry is being held in the Mackinaw City jail awaiting felony charges of trying to smuggle contraband to inmates. John Cordell is with the Michigan Department of Corrections.
"It appears from the investigation that he was trying to introduce contraband – both heroin and contraband tobacco, which is illegal inside facilities – inside the correctional facility."
Cordell says the man faces at least three felony charges. He says the scheme was detected from monitoring phone traffic into the prison and information from a cell phone that was seized from a prisoner.
The guard was stopped and arrested in downtown Mackinaw City. Cordell says the contraband was in the corrections officer’s car.
The guard has also been suspended without pay from his job at the prison in the eastern Upper Peninsula.
