Woman Uses Her Toddler To Smuggle Drugs Into Prison

Video from 2018 is sparking concerns about inmates sneaking contraband inside Rikers Island in New York. The surveillance video from an incident back in April shows a visitor handing her daughter over to the inmate and quite possibly something more. “It’s very frustrating because we know what they’re doing and we know who they are,” Correction Officers Benevolent Association President Elias Husamudeen said. Inmates at Rikers Island go to great lengths to have visitors bring them contraband, oftentimes stashing the illegal goods inside their body cavities. “They not only smuggle in drugs in these balloons, (but) they also smuggle in razors and weapons inside these balloons,” Husamudeen said.

The video, he says, shows a slick transfer of contraband. The female visitor is holding her daughter in her arms, then at one point, reaches in her own pants. Husamudeen said she takes something out, slips it in her little girl’s pants, and then hands her to the inmate. Within seconds, Husamudeen said the inmate reaches in the child’s pants, removes the alleged contraband, and stashes it in his pants. Correction officers rush in and pat down the inmate, but they are prohibited from doing cavity searches. Neither the inmate nor the woman was charged.