5 charged in alleged jail-mail drug scheme
A misplaced stamp, a suspicious postmark and the wrong return address.
These things quickly tipped off jail employees that an envelope of “legal mail” sent to a murder suspect at the Metropolitan Detention Center may not have been from his high-profile public defender.
When they opened the package that appeared to be from attorney Gary Mitchell, deputies say their suspicions were confirmed.
Now five people, including inmate Joshua Taramasco, 31, are charged with conspiracy, bringing contraband into jail, identity theft and more. According to a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court, a mail clerk at the jail in late February spotted a letter addressed to Taramasco that didn’t look right, even though the return address was his attorney’s.
When deputies opened it they say they found forged legal documents and several articles on subjects including “how to deal with your crazy boss,” “divorce,” and “how people actually fought with swords.”
“Affiant immediately found this information to be irrelevant and odd for a criminal case,” a deputy wrote in the complaint.
Hidden throughout the pages were 27 strips of suboxone, according to the complaint.
The investigation found that Taramasco had schemed with four of his friends to smuggle suboxone, a drug used to treat opiate addiction, into the jail so he could sell it to other inmates, according to the complaint.
Deputies arrested Samantha Anderson, 28, for her part Sunday and said that she had help from Alicia Barela, 33, Brian Moore, 39, and Michael Manso, 58. The other three were not in custody Monday night.
Taramasco was already in jail awaiting trial in the kidnapping and death of 29-year-old Tiffany Boyer in August 2015.
Police say Taramasco and three others tied Boyer up in a northeast Albuquerque home, lined the floors with plastic and the windows with cardboard and beat her to death with a hammer because they believed she was responsible for their friend Robert “Machete Bob” McGuire’s death.
Mitchell had been defending Taramasco, who is charged with murder in Boyer’s death, but according to court documents he has now been withdrawn from the case.