By concealing the narcotics in puzzles and artwork, a woman sent drugs to her partner who was incarcerated.
After the guidelines for loved ones sending gifts to inmates were loosened during Covid, Charmaine Orange delivered Dean Wright various substances by hiding them in jigsaw and matchstick puzzles and blending them with paint.
In addition, according to evidence presented at Newcastle Crown Court, $17,000 went through her bank accounts after she chose to ignore the fact that her ex-boyfriend Wright was using her information to receive money from his drug trafficking business within HMP Northumberland.
However, after a judge was told mum-of-two Orange was in a controlling relationship with Wright, he spared her an immediate spell behind bars.
Liam O’Brien, prosecuting, said the drugs supply offences happened in April and May 2020. He told the court: ‘She did so in a couple of different ways.
‘During lockdown, the prison changed the rules so family members could send things like puzzles and jigsaws.
‘On one occasion the defendant sent a matchbox puzzle containing drugs and another time a jigsaw had drugs hidden in it.
‘There was also a painting with paint which had drugs mixed with it. Another time, blue powder was put in a bag and hidden between two pieces of paper. It leaked and went all over the post and the whole of the prison post had to be binned as it was contaminated.’
Orange, 35, of Walling Road, Blakelaw, Newcastle, was traced as the sender as her bank card had been used to pay for postage.
The 34-year-old, who has two previous convictions for an environmental and a driving matter, pleaded guilty to supplying buprenorphine, diazepam and a psychoactive substance – flualprazolam.
She was sentenced to nine months suspended for 12 months with a one-month curfew between 8pm and 6pm. She faces proceedings under the Proceeds of Crime Act.
Jamie Adams, defending, said: ‘This woman was leading a very hard-working lifestyle and had two children to look after. She met Dean Wright and he was not physically abusive but intensely emotionally abusive.
‘That’s what brought her to this offending.’
Mr Adams said when Orange sought to break up with Wright, he wrote what appeared to be a suicide note blaming her and branding her a ‘murderer’ for what he was threatening to do to himself.
Mr Adams added: ‘She accepts there are monies that have gone into her account which had emanated from drugs she sent in to him when he was in custody. He was clearly making some profit out of what was sent in.
‘He was giving people her bank details. She was not profiting from it at all.’
The court heard her bank details were found in at least five prison cells occupied by inmates other than Wright.