Livingston jail drug smuggling operation busted, deputies claim
By Bob Anderson
and Heidi R. Kinchen
Florida Parishes bureau
October 19, 2012
LIVINGSTON — Deputies booked eight inmates in an attempt earlier this month to smuggle thousands of dollars of drugs into the parish jail, the Livingston Parish Sheriff’s Office said Wednesday.
After foiling two attempts in two months to smuggle drugs into the facility, Sheriff Jason Ard is considering added security, Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Lori Steele said.
“No drugs have been found inside the jail since Sheriff Ard took office,” she said. “We want to keep it that way.”
Ard took office in June.
The sheriff is considering adding additional cameras to the perimeter of the facility, Steele said.
“We know the places that we need to keep an eye on,” she said. “The deputies have been really observant.”
So far, 10 people have been booked in the Oct. 3 attempt to smuggle drugs into the Livingston Parish Detention Center, and more arrests could follow, Steele said.
The investigation is now focused outside the jail, she said.
“We’re still investigating where the drugs came from initially,”she said.
Steele said sheriff’s narcotics officers believe they have booked all the inmates involved, but if more arrests are made outside the facility, it could lead to additional arrests inside the jail.
Steele declined to give details about how inmates planned to retrieve the drugs once they were thrown over a jail fence or how they planned to get them into various areas of the jail. But there was a plan for distribution once the drugs were inside the facility, she said.
Deputies hiding Oct. 3 in a wooded area near the jail intercepted a man they later identified as Kennie Wascom II, 34, 29360 S. Red Oak Drive, Livingston, who was allegedly carrying drugs toward the jail’s outer-perimeter fence, Steele said.
The drugs were packed inside tobacco wrapped in clear plastic and bound with tape and cord, Steele said.
The street value was about $2,000, but the value inside the jail would have been $5,000 to $10,000, she said.
Wascom made his way through the wooded area after he was dropped off by a woman on Charley Watts Road, which is not far from the jail, Steele said.
The woman, identified as Kimberly Blount, 29, 29620 S. Satsuma Road, Livingston, was arrested when she returned to pick up Wascom, the Sheriff’s Office said.
Deputies have booked eight inmates in the case, according to a Sheriff’s Office news release.
The following inmates were booked on a count of conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute Schedule II
controlled dangerous substances:
- Daniel Ritchie, 35, 12270 Arnold Road, Walker
- Stanley Gunter, 35, 26229 Walker S. Road, Walker
- Seth McCarroll, 32, 19691 La. 444, Livingston
- Dexter Talbert, 36, 25225 La. 16, Denham Springs
- Lloyd Simoneaux, 29, 19341 La. 22, Maurepas
- Joseph Blount, 30, 27595 S. Satsuma Road, Livingston
- Sylvester Davenport, 24, 419 East St., Denham Springs
- Benjamin Thomas, 33, 29614 S. Satsuma Road, Livingston
Wascom was arrested Oct. 3 and booked on counts of bringing contraband into a penal facility, resisting an officer, possession of drug paraphernalia, possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine, hydrocodone and klonopin, and two counts of possession with intent to distribute roxycontin, according to a Sheriff’s Office news release.
Blount was arrested Oct. 3 and booked on counts of possession of methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia and as a principal to possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine, hydrocodone and klonopin and two counts as a principal to possession with intent to distribute roxycontin, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
In August, deputies arrested three people accused of trying to smuggle drugs into the same facility.
In that case, a woman is also accused of dropping a man off on Charlie Watts Road from where he allegedly walked through the wooded area to the jail carrying drugs. Deputies also booked a jail trusty in the August case.