A correctional officer at the Carroll County Detention Center was arrested yesterday, accused of smuggling heroin to four jail inmates during the past two months in exchange for cocaine for his own use, according to county law enforcement officials.
Jeffrey Ronald Meyers, 24, of the 200 block of E. Green St. in Westminster is charged with delivering heroin to persons in confinement, conspiring separately with three female inmates and distributing narcotics, Carroll County State's Attorney Jerry F. Barnes said.
Meyers has been fired and there is no indication of involvement by other jail employees, Sheriff Kenneth L. Tregoning said.
At a news conference yesterday, Tregoning accused Meyers of supplying four inmates with heroin, which he received from a source in Carroll and from one of the inmates' mothers, who lives in Harford County.
The mother also supplied Meyers with the cocaine, according to Tregoning and members of the Carroll County Drug Task Force.
Tregoning said the arrangement was set up by one of the four inmates. He said the heroin was delivered in a bucket given to inmates to clean their areas.
Heroin was brought in at least four times: a total of 11 small vials each containing about a tenth of a gram and each worth $10 to $20 on the street, officials said.
An investigation of the four inmates, the Harford woman and a person who is believed to have provided heroin to Meyers is continuing.
Meyers was in isolation yesterday at the jail at 100 N. Court St. A District Court commissioner set bail at $50,000, and a bail review hearing was scheduled for 11 a.m. today in District Court.
The maximum penalties range from 20 years and a $25,000 fine on the felony drug-distribution charge to three years and a $1,000 fine on each of the other four charges: delivering drugs to a person in confinement, and three conspiracy charges.