Long Island

Meat Cleaver Found in Amazon Package Sent to NY Inmate

meat cleaver
Handout

It's a good thing they check the mail.

Correction officers with Long Island's Suffolk County sheriff's office found a meat cleaver in an Amazon.com package addressed to an inmate at the Riverhead Correctional facility last week, officials said Wednesday.

It was one of the items in the package, and while the rest of the contents weren't shared by authorities, they kept the meat cleaver and gave the inmate anything that was permissible. String, maybe?

All packages sent to the correctional facility are opened and inspected in accordance with state law, but it's probably rare to find a meat cleaver inside.

"Careful inspection and processing of all mail and packages before they enter the correctional facility is critical. Any dangerous item, let alone a large knife, that makes its way into the facility could be deadly for staff and inmates alike," Suffolk County Sheriff Errol D. Toulon said in a statement. "While this large meat cleaver was easy to detect, I thank my staff for their careful work in preventing smaller dangerous weapons and drugs from making their way inside through the US mail."

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