Alexandria jail requests dogs to sniff out incoming drugs

Alexandria (Map, News) - An outside review of Alexandria Detention Center procedures says the jail needs frequent sweeps with drug-sniffing dogs and greater vigilance searching letters.

Alexandria Sheriff Dana Lawhorne asked the Arlington sheriff’s office to conduct the review after three inmates and their girlfriends were charged with smuggling heroin into the jail in June.

“While Alexandria jail has solid policies and practices in place regarding the receiving of mail, [staff] need to utilize narcotics canines in checking mail before it is delivered and afterwards,” the external review states, according to Alexandria Chief Deputy Tim Gleeson.

The review also recommends that drug dogs search “all areas staff and inmates inhabit” and that “staff should be more vigilant in searching” inmates’ mail, Gleeson said.

The Alexandria sheriff’s department has one dog trained to detect explosives, but none that can detect drugs. The department will request one of the police department’s drug-detecting dogs sweep the jail randomly, Gleeson said.

Only flat paper in plain envelopes has been accepted at the jail since the smuggling was discovered, Gleeson said. The inmates who smuggled in the drugs found an “ingenious” way to do it, Gleeson said, refusing to describe it for security reasons.

Half of the defendants have been sentenced, and all six pleaded guilty, Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Bryan Porter said. Jesse Boner, 30, of Dumfries, and Danielle McGonigle, 23, are scheduled to be sentenced Thursday. Diane Brown, 42, is scheduled to be sentenced in December.

Camilo Gomez, 23, of Centreville, was in the jail on federal charges in March when Boner gave him heroin that Boner’s girlfriends, McGonigle and Brown, had mailed him in the jail, Assistant Commonwealth’s

Attorney Elliott Casey said in September. Gomez’s girlfriend, Heidi Farrish, 22, of Centreville, also mailed heroin to him in the jail, Casey said. Gomez sold some heroin to another inmate, Mark Esposito, 23, of Manassas. Alexandria police intercepted that shipment, so Gomez asked Farrish to deliver some drugs to Esposito’s family, who planned to visit.

In June, Farrish sold heroin to two Alexandria detectives posing as the inmate’s relatives, Casey said.

mhegstad@dcexaminer.com

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