FROM STAFF REPORTS

The Shelby County Drug Enforcement Task Force arrested six suspects as a result of an investigation involving the smuggling of suboxone, a schedule-three opiate, into the Shelby County Correctional Facility. Arrest warrants are still pending on five remaining suspects.

Corrections Officers at the Shelby County Correctional Facility alerted the SCDETF after a Bible containing hidden suboxone was discovered within the facility. During the course of the investigation, it was discovered that multiple Bibles were used to smuggle suboxone into the Shelby County Correctional Facility during November and December 2013.

The SCDETF investigation began Jan. 2 and concluded in March, when arrest warrants were signed for all 11 suspects.

Charles Robert Caldwell, 33, of Calera; Altonius Donnel Mason, 20, of Birmingham; Larry Brian Morris, 37, of Wilsonville; Larry Keith Morris, 56, of Shelby; Jacob Kenneth Mykicz, 25, of Homewood; and Quran Elijah Wilson, 20, of Hoover were all charged with conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance and conspiracy to promote prison contraband. Each of the suspects’ bond is set at $20,000.

“Drug addicts will go to any extreme to get drugs and will manipulate loved ones in order to get what they want. In this particular instance, the suspects persuaded other people to use Bibles as a means of delivering their drugs into a correctional facility,” Lt. Kevin Turner, Task Force Commander said. “Since this incident, the facility has changed its policy and no longer allows outside books to be delivered to inmates. The Shelby County Correctional Facility has a zero tolerance policy for contraband, and those who violate the policy will be prosecuted.”

The SCDETF consists of law enforcement officers from the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office, the Alabaster Police Department, the Helena Police Department, the Pelham Police Department and the Shelby County District Attorney’s Office. The SCDETF is funded by the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs and the Shelby County Commission.