Whiff of drug-tainted Christmas card sends NC jail officer to hospital, police say
A North Carolina sheriff’s officer was hospitalized after inhaling a white powder that floated from a jail inmate’s Christmas card, authorities said.
Investigators said the officer accidentally whiffed the opioid Fentanyl, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says can kill a person. The drug is 80 times more potent than morphine and “hundreds of times more potent than heroin,” according to the federal agency’s website.
Two Union County sheriff’s jail officers were sorting inmate mail on Tuesday morning when one of them noticed that parts of a Christmas card had been glued together, according to a sheriff’s office news release.
One of the officers used a letter opener to separate the sections, and “a white powdery substance fell into the officer’s hand,” according to the release.
The officer wasn’t wearing gloves, investigators said. To decontaminate his hands, the officer handed the card to another officer. Powder then floated into the air, and the second officer accidentally inhaled some of it, according to the sheriff’s office.
Jail medical staff immediately tended to the officer who inhaled the substance after he became dizzy, lightheaded and nauseous, the sheriff’s office said. The officer was taken to Atrium Union hospital for more treatment and observation, officials said.
The officer was later released and is expected to “fully recover,” according to the sheriff’s office, which hasn’t released the officers’ names.
Investigators also found strips of Suboxone taped to the card. Suboxone treats opioid addiction.
The envelope of the card had a fake name and return address, as did a second Christmas card in which Suboxone strips were hidden, according to the sheriff’s office. The cards were addressed to inmates in the same cell, officials said.
A crime scene examiner lifted fingerprints from inside one of the cards that matched those of 35-year-old Fabian Pagan, authorities said. The registered sex offender lives in the same Monroe home as one of the inmates who was to receive one of the cards, according to investigators
Pagan was arrested and charged with providing contraband to an inmate, possession with intent to sell or deliver a controlled substance and other offenses.
Sheriff’s detectives also charged 43-year-old Christy Michelle Pendry of Monroe in connection with the case. She was charged with three counts of providing contraband to an inmate.
This story was originally published December 31, 2020 at 1:16 PM.