By DON FLETCHER
News Staff Writer
A former corrections officer trainee at Fountain Correctional Facility was arrested April 4, after he apparently tried to smuggle more than seven ounces of marijuana and two cell phones into the state prison, just outside Atmore.
Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) officials reported that a search conducted by an ADOC K9 unit led to the arrest of 51-year-old Tommy Middleton, who reportedly had “approximately 212 grams of marijuana and two cell phones” in his possession.
The discovery was made as part of a joint investigation involving the ADOC’s K-9, Narcotics, and Law Enforcement Services divisions.
Middleton was taken into custody by ADOC investigators and booked into the Escambia County Detention Center on one count each of first-degree possession of marijuana, second-degree promoting prison contraband, attempting to commit a controlled substance crime, resisting arrest, and obstructing governmental operations.
He remained in the county jail early Tuesday, April 8, as the ADOC investigation continued.
Ironically, a joint contraband interdiction operation had been conducted a day earlier at Fountain Correctional by the ADOC’s K-9, Intelligence and Communications Services, and Men’s Services divisions, and the prison system’s Emergency Response Team. That operation resulted in the removal of an unspecified quantity of contraband that was intended for distribution to Fountain inmates.
Middleton’s arrest follows a recent rash of similar incidents at Holman Correctional Facility, also just outside Atmore and about a mile from Fountain, where a corrections officer and four civilians were arrested during a three-day period after failed attempts to smuggle drugs and other contraband into the prison.