School bus driver held in smuggling
GREENSBURG — The St. Helena Parish Sheriff’s Office notified the Tangipahoa Parish School System after one of the system’s school bus drivers was caught allegedly smuggling prohibited items into St. Helena’s jail, authorities said Friday.
Tammy E. Smith, 44, of Lee Hughes Road, Hammond, was booked Wednesday on two counts of introducing contraband into a jail facility and one count of possession of marijuana, sheriff’s spokesman Joe Chaney said in a news release.
Smith brought a package for an inmate at the jail, Chaney said, “who had recently been arrested for a number of burglaries in St. Helena Parish.”
The package Warden Marvin Shaffer received directly from Smith contained a sweatshirt that, when examined, had cigarettes and marijuana sewn into the hood, Chaney said.
Smith’s bail was set at $75,000 Friday by state District Judge Wayne Ray Chutz, according to a jail spokesman.
“Smith listed her employment as a bus driver for the Tangipahoa Parish School System,” Chaney reported, adding, “School officials were immediately notified.”
School System officials did not return calls seeking comment Friday about the incident.