HANCOCK COUNTY — An inmate and a woman he was working with on the outside had an elaborate plan to sneak drugs into the Hancock County Jail until officials learned about the scheme. Now, both are facing multiple felony charges.
Donald “Dylan” Lohrey, 39, Plainfield, has been charged with five Level 5 felony drug crimes: dealing in a Schedule III controlled substance; conspiracy to commit trafficking with an inmate and three counts of attempting to commit trafficking with an inmate. Each count carries a sentence of up to six years in prison.
Brooke Thomas, 37, Mt. Summit, has been identified as Lohrey’s wife and is accused of working with Lohrey from Dec. 12, 2019, to Jan. 16, 2020, to get the drugs into the county jail.
Thomas, who has not been arrested, has been charged with eight Level 5 felony counts: manufacture, deliver or finance of a Schedule III controlled substance; conspiracy to commit trafficking with an inmate; three counts of dealing a Schedule III controlled substance; and three counts of attempting to commit trafficking with an inmate. Each count carries a sentence of up to six years in prison.
According to a probable cause affidavit filed in support of the charges, jail officials received information that several inmates inside D block had been using narcotics. One inmate told jailers that narcotics were being brought in after being liquefied and soaked into paper disguised as mail. The paper then could be cut up, put in water and swallowed.
The affidavit states Lohrey used the drug — identified as Suboxone — to get fellow inmates to put money into his jail account; pay for tattoos; and to get other favors inside the jail. Suboxone is a narcotic used to treat opioid addiction, but it can also be abused.
Investigators began to piece together the conspiracy after they started listening to phone conversations between Thomas and Lohrey that focused on “letters” she would send to him in jail. In one conversation, according to the affidavit, she would be sending out letters and “it will be in the ink.”
Lohrey, according to the affidavit, asked Thomas to send some “good letters” because he was feeling poorly.
They also discussed how to prepare the mailings. In December, investigators overheard Lohrey and Thomas talking about using an orange marker to write a message, and Lohrey told her she should use colored paper. Suboxone tablets are orange, and paper soaked with the dissolved pills would arouse less suspicion if orange ink were used or the paper was a different color, the affidavit said, noting the method is consistent with how drugs are sometimes smuggled into the jail.
Lohrey and Thomas had multiple phone conversations, according to the affidavit, and in one call Lohrey informs Thomas to label the mailings “legal” so they would get through the mail screeners.
In a conversation on Christmas evening, Thomas requested more people to be “pen pals” with, the affidavit said, suggesting such an arrangement would be a way to smuggle even more drugs into the jail.
Detectives learned that Thomas had been prescribed Suboxone, the affidavit said.
In January, officials kept listening to their conversations and heard them continue to plot to bring drugs into the jail through letters. They discussed another technique: gluing two pieces of paper together with the drugs in between the sheets.
At least one letter to the jail used that technique. “When held up to light, it was easy to see orange substance that had been secured between the (two) sheets of paper,” the affidavit said. The substance tested positive for Buprenorphine, an active ingredient in Suboxone.
In a phone call following the arrival of mail on Jan. 10, Lohrey told Thomas he thinks “they are on to us,” the affidavit said.
Lohrey is already was jail for a Level 5 felony charge of operating a vehicle after forfeiting his license, as well as other crimes. He appeared via video court in front of Judge Scott Sirk in Hancock County Circuit Court, Tuesday, April 21 on the new charges. Sirk set a $5,000 cash bond and appointed a public defender.
A warrant has been issued for Thomas, and she at-large.
