Baltimore CitiWatch surveillance cameras helped thwart a jail smuggling attempt on Sunday, state corrections officials reported.
Early Sunday, state correctional workers monitoring the city's crime cameras posted around the Baltimore City Detention Center downtown watched a trio try to pass a package into the jail using a rope corrections officials said a detainee had sent down outside the institution's walls.
Baltimore police swooped in and arrested Perry Davenport, 53, and Sierra Johnson, 28, and charged each with nine criminal counts including possession and attempt to deliver a controlled dangerous substance and conspiracy to deliver a telecommunication device to an inmate.
Police recovered multiple tape and plastic-wrapped packages of cigarettes, matches, tobacco, suspected marijuana and a Samsung cell phone, according to arrest warrants. The partnership between state corrections officials and Baltimore's CitiWatch center began early this year, and state Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services spokesman Rick Binetti said the smuggling bust was the first using crime cameras.
"Together, these efforts are showing that it has become increasingly difficult for both gangs and corrupt staff to operate inside the State's Baltimore City correctional complex," state corrections officials said in a statement.