Drug-smuggling arrest made at Angola

ST. FRANCISVILLE – A revealing dress led to the discovery of hidden drugs at the state penitentiary at Angola, the West Feliciana Parish Sheriff’s Office said.
A Baton Rouge woman went through the visitor processing facility at Angola’s main gate on the morning of Nov. 10 without attracting the attention of a drug-sniffing dog, deputies said.
But Angola employees delayed her entrance because of questions about her dress, which some considered too revealing for a prison.
The scrutiny made the woman nervous and apparently she became worried that she was under suspicion for smuggling drugs, Sheriff’s Capt. Archer Lee said.
Witnesses saw her dump three small packages of drugs into a flower pot in the visiting room and shove two condoms in which they were wrapped under a rug, Lee said.
Prison employees found three tightly wrapped packages; one containing a total of 17.8 grams of cocaine and marijuana; another containing 16.2 grams of marijuana; and the third containing 14.6 grams of marijuana.
Sheriff J. Austin Daniel on Wednesday said Janice Marie Jackson, 50, was arrested Tuesday night and booked on several drug counts.
Corrections Col. Bobby Achord said Jackson has been visiting convicted murderer Jerome Smith, 37, since May and admitted smuggling cocaine and marijuana at least 14 times to Smith, who broke the drugs into smaller packets for sale inside the prison.
Deputies did not immediately arrest Jackson on Nov. 10, hoping she would reveal the source of the drugs, but Jackson would not cooperate, Lee said.