TUCSON (KVOA) — The Pima County Jail is operating as usual, but the reserved area was closed for more than two hours on Tuesday due to possible fentanyl contamination.
Investigators said Andrea Mendoza, 39, was about to be sent to prison after finding fentanyl and xylazine, also known as ‘the trunk’, during a search.
A Marana police officer took Mendoza to a reserved area, where she was arrested on two counts of possession of drug paraphernalia and breach of warrant.
Here are seven safety tips every inmate must go through before entering a containment unit.
She was diagnosed with a medical problem by a paramedic.
She sat in the Step Two holding cell, where prison officers had taken her casual clothes and exchanged them for prison uniforms.
At this stage, prison officers searched her clothing and found fentanyl.
Prison officials said they found the fentanyl laced with trunks, a sedative used on animals in veterinary procedures.
They told News4Tucson that she tried to stay ahead of them by hiding it in her shoe.
A total of five people, including three police officers, were arrested and subjected to medical examinations.
K-9 Supervisor Sergeant Tony Kelly said, “There were no exposures and no inhalation of the powdered material to cause anything. All three officers are fine and back to work.”
Among the safety measures are body scan and diesel.
He is one of four drug detection dogs. Diesel specializes in sniffing out fentanyl and is one of the few fentanyl dogs in Arizona.
“He found fentanyl many times. One of his greatest discoveries was more than 200 pills hidden inside a peanut butter jelly sandwich. He found one pill hidden inside a capped toothpaste.
The diesel, like the rest of the K-9 units, runs 10-15 hours per day.
While the inmates waited to enter the residence, he sniffed around downstairs. And when they leave the lower floors, they also look around.
And there will be surprise searches when inmates are in their residential units.
He added that all policies and procedures were followed.
“I want to take this as a success. We should take it as a victory of policy being the procedure and how well the officers are doing their jobs,” Sergeant Kelly said.
Mendoza, 39, is now facing new charges of drug possession and facilitation of prison contraband.
