Eight people were charged for plotting to traffic drugs into the Suffolk County Correctional Facility in Riverhead through the mail and jail visitations, officials said.
Suffolk County investigators discovered over the course of three months that five jail visitors and three inmates allegedly conspired to smuggle drugs — including heroin, buprenorphine, cannabis, K2 and more — into the Long Island facility by sewing the contraband into clothing or hiding it in packing materials and then either sending them via the U.S. Postal Service or having them brought in by jail visitors, police said.
Police found the hidden drugs while conducting surveillance and phone monitoring as part of their investigation.
"Through surveillance, searches, and detailed investigatory work, these investigators were able to uncover a complex plan to traffic dangerous drugs into the facility," Suffolk County Sheriff Errol Toulon said in a statement Tuesday.
Get Tri-state area news delivered to your inbox.> Sign up for NBC New York's News Headlines newsletter.
The district attorney charged the eight suspects with 25 felonies and 12 misdemeanors, including conspiracy, criminal possession of a controlled substance, criminal sale of a controlled substance, promoting prison contraband and criminal facilitation.
“The defendants allegedly conspired to introduce dangerous drugs into the SCCF. Thanks to the excellent work of the Sheriff’s Office Criminal Investigations Bureau, working with prosecutors from my office, this scheme was thwarted,” Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond Tierney said.
