Milkman is accused of sneaking drugs, phones into Warren prison
A Fairfield County LEBANON — milkman is facing multiple felony charges alleging he smuggled marijuana, tobacco and cellphones into the Lebanon Correctional Institution hidden inside milk cartons.
Ray Adams, 50, is free on $10,000 bond, while charged with illegal conveyance onto institution, possession of marijuana and criminal tools, and illegal conveyance of a communication device onto grounds of a specified government facility, according to on-line Warren County Common Pleas Court records.
Before making deliveries, Adams, would meet a contact at a nearby highway gas station and receive substitute milk cartons containing the contraband before entering the prison, Warren County Prosecutor David Fornshell told the Associated Press.
An inmate took it from there, according to the prosecutor.
“It’s not being brought in just to be randomly passed out to whoever — ‘Hey it’s your lucky day, you’re one of 30 winners today,’ ” Fornshell said. “Somebody on the inside had to be looking for the milk cartons coming in, knowing how they were going to be marked, knowing what day they were coming in.”
Adams has been a driver with United Dairy for 14 years and a prison milk deliveryman for the past two years, Fornshell said.
Investigators believe the contraband scheme was dreamed up last August.
Fornshell said the investigation was ongoing and there could be additional charges.
William Oswall Jr. has been appointed to represent Adams, who has filed a demand for discovery and request for bill of particulars in the case.
The case was referred from Lebanon Municipal Court on Jan. 12 and Adams was indicted on Jan. 29, according to court records.
He was arraigned on Feb. 16, but no other hearings have been scheduled in the case.
Adams was in contact with an unidentified inmate who facilitated the deliveries and set up payments, Fornshell said.
Adams, an employee of Martins Ferry-based United Dairy Inc., made thousands of dollars sneaking the items in over time, Fornshell said.
On Jan. 8, authorities searched the nearly 30,000 milk cartons Adams was delivering that day and found contraband, including 12 cellphones, in 30 of them.
Oswall did not immediately return messages from the Associated Press seeking comment.
Prisons spokeswoman JoEllen Smith declined to comment because of the pending criminal charges against Adams.
Ohio began relying on outside companies to deliver milk to prisons after selling off its dairy cows in 2016. Reducing contraband was one of several factors the prisons director cited at the time in support of the move.
“The department anticipates that phasing out prison farming operations will also minimize the opportunities for passing illegal contraband into our prisons,” according to an April 2016 fact sheet from the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.