Prison inmates find drugs in fruit donated by police

EDINBURG — Workers at a state prison discovered some illicit produce last week while unpacking a fruit crate in the facility’s kitchen, law enforcement officials said Tuesday.

Employees working in the mess hall of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice’s Segovia Unit found 25 pounds of marijuana nestled in a crate of bananas and other fruits Friday.

The fruit — which was donated by the Edinburg Police Department — originally came from a produce truck from which officers had seized more than a half a ton of the drug, Police Chief Quirino Muñoz said.

Prisoners — several of whom unloaded the produce from the prison delivery truck — were strip-searched to make sure they had not taken any of the drugs, TDCJ spokesman Jason Clark said. No contraband was found outside of the produce crates.

“We secured the area and notified Edinburg police,” Clark said.

Hiding drugs in loads of produce and other foodstuffs has become a common tactic smugglers use to try to sneak their illicit product into the country. But when authorities discover these contaminated hauls, they are often prohibited by government health agencies from delivering the fruits and vegetables to the original purchasers.

Instead, many law enforcement agencies donate the produce to local food banks or prisons, said Muñoz. The Segovia Unit — one of two state prison units near Edinburg — is a frequent recipient of such deliveries.

“We always inspect those donations before they are delivered,” the chief said. “I guess these drugs were inadvertently missed by the officers and our drug dogs.”

CLARIFICATION: A previous version of this story required clarification. Prison employees discovered the marijuana hidden in the produce crate, Segovia Unit Warden William Walker said Wednesday. However, inmates had to be strip-searched because several had been involved in unloading the truck on which the produce had been shipped to the facility.

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Jeremy Roebuck covers courts and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4437.