How three former Bucks County inmates allegedly smuggled drugs into the jail.
Three former Bucks County inmates are facing nearly two dozen felony charges for allegedly smuggling a drug used in the treatment of opiate disorders into the jail in 2021.
Joshua James Bowen, 37, of Philadelphia, was arraigned Wednesday on 21 felony and eight misdemeanor drug offenses for his part in the alleged suboxone smuggling ring. He is currently incarcerated in Philadelphia, with bail set at $50,000.
Authorities have filed similar charges against Patrick Kerwin Kelly, 37, who is incarcerated in a Wayne County state prison, and John Andrew Cope, of Doylestown, who turns 35 next week. Neither defendant had been preliminarily arraigned as of Thursday, but arrest warrants have been filed, according to the county docket.
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County corrections staff discovered the smuggling scheme after staff reviewing incoming mail at the Doylestown Township correctional center discovered an envelope with suspected suboxone concealed in its seams, according to an affidavit of probable cause.
Over the next 10 days prison staff recovered more envelopes with suspected suboxone concealed in the seams. In total, six envelopes were recovered containing a hidden drug, which lab tests later confirmed was suboxone, authorities said.
Suboxone is an oral drug used to treat addiction to heroin and prescription painkillers such as oxycodone, but it can also be used to get high, and its formulation makes it easy to conceal.
A common way it is smuggled into jails is hiding the thin film strips containing the drug behind stamps or diluting the drug and mixing it with ink applied to paper and fabric that can be reconstituted later.
Two of the letters with suboxone in the envelopes were sent to an inmate who was transferred to the Montgomery County Correctional Facility the day before the first letter arrived, and he never received it, according to the affidavit. He has not been charged.
The remaining envelopes were addressed to Bowen.
The envelopes contained different sender names and return addresses, but authorities believe they were all sent by the same person based on the handwriting and letter content including a reference to Kelly, who was Bowen’s cellmate for four months in 2021.
Authorities tied the letters to Bowen with his co-defendant, Cope, who was released from jail in June 2021, about a month before the first letter with hidden suboxone arrived. He was subsequently arrested in August 2021 and incarcerated again.
Investigators reviewed prison phone logs, text message systems, and cellphone records for Cope and the two others and were able to connect the men, who at one point were incarcerated at the jail at the same time.
The handwriting and signature in an appeal Cope submitted was compared to the handwriting and signatures in the six letters containing suboxone and it appeared identical, authorities said.
Authorities obtained a search warrant to get a DNA sample from Cope which matched DNA taken from two letters addressed to Bowen.
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This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Former Bucks County inmates accused of smuggling suboxone into jail
