DETROIT (WWJ) -- A Wayne County Sheriff's Office contracted employer and an alleged inmate participant are facing charges for allegedly smuggling, selling and buying drugs in the Wayne County Jail.
The employee, 28-year-old Ashton McDougal, was arrested on Nov. 29 when she arrived at work -- with 24 grams of marijuana on her -- by the Wayne County Sheriff's Internal Affairs Section and the Wayne County Narcotics Unit.
She was then arraigned on a three-count felony complaint, including two counts of jails -- furnishing contraband to prisoners and one count of jails -- furnishing cell phone to prisoner.
After following various investigative leads, it was discovered that 25-year-old inmate, Dawaun McQueen, was an alleged participant in the smuggling operation, having received a cell phone from McDougal.
McQueen is in jail on charges of assault with intent to murder. Following this incident, he was arraigned on a new charge of jails -- possession/use of a cell phone to include an enhancement of third habitual offender.
After marijuana was discovered in the jail, the Internal Affairs Section conducted an investigation and surveillance that identified McDougal as an alleged participant in illegal activity.
"We will not accept this nonsense. We absolutely will not, said Sheriff Raphael Washington. "We have a zero-tolerance policy for this type of conduct.
Investigators also discovered a brown powdery substance on an inmate that the Michigan State Police Crime Lab confirmed to be pure fentanyl, but McDougal denied bringing anything other than marijuana, cigarettes, drug paraphernalia and cell phones into the jail.
McDougal had received thousands of dollars in exchange for delivering to multiple inmates. She was charging roughly $500 per marijuana delivery and $1,000 for a cell phone.
Authorities said McDougal did not have a criminal record when hired and only worked in the jail for about five months.
"She's very unassuming and seemed to show remorse for what she had done," said Internal Affairs Captain Reid Chakrabarty.
The investigation is ongoing.
"If we find out that there are any further crimes, we're going after them, too. That's a fact," said Undersheriff Mike Jaafar.
Two other inmates she had been selling to have been transferred to maximum security.
