Woman facing smuggling charges

Officials: She tried to bring heroin, drug paraphernalia into Chester County Prison

Desperate people resort to desperate measures, when it comes to drug addiction.

A Caln woman has been charged by Chester County Detectives with attempting to smuggle heroin and drug paraphernalia into Chester County Prison, hiding the items inside her body when she knew she was going to be taken into custody.

Keriann Elizabeth Meyers, 32, of DuPont Street, is charged with contraband, possession of a controlled substance, and possession of drug paraphernalia and scheduled to appear at a preliminary hearing Tuesday before Magisterial District Judge Mark Bruno.

The charges were filed Wednesday, about one month following the incident in which the drugs and a syringe were found on Meyers during multiple searches by county sheriffs and prison personnel. Meyers has been held at the prison on a probation violation detainer since Nov. 28.

The woman told a county detective that she had purposefully

concealed the items because she knew she would be taken into custody that afternoon for using heroin while on probation for a retail theft conviction. She said she wanted to bring the items into the prison for her own use while incarcerated.

According to a criminal complaint filed by Detective Christopher Bucci, the incident began around 4 p.m. Nov. 28 when Meyers reported to the county’s Adult Probation Office in the Justice Center for a scheduled meeting with her probation officer. When questioned by Probation Officer Michelle Ward, Meyers admitted to using heroin previously and failing to check in with the office. She was taken into custody by sheriff deputies.

A search of her and her belongings uncovered a bag of suspected heroin concealed in her bra, and nine more bags of the drug in her purse. She was then strip searched, and the female deputy who conducted the search spotted the end of a hypodermic needle protruding from inside her body. Meyers was ordered to remove it, and did so. The item was photographed and destroyed.

She and her belongings

were then transported to the prison, where an additional search was conducted by corrections officers. There, two more bags of heroin were found hidden in the lining of her purse, and another strip search was conducted in which nothing more was found, the complaint stated.

But Meyers later that day was taken to the Chester County Hospital for a unrelated health matter. Once there, a corrections officer who had accompanied her noticed a bulge in her sock that had not been there previously. He recovered a small bundle that contained heroin and pills. Meyers told the officer that she had put the bundle inside her body and had removed it and placed it in her sock while at the hospital.

In an interview with county Detective Gerald Davis on Dec. 7, Meyers admitted bringing the heroin into the prison and the syringe into the Justice Center, “because she knew she would be incarcerated for probation violations and wanted to bring the controlled substances into the prison.”

Bruno is expected to set bail on the case Tuesday.