An inmate got a greeting card with heroin inside, cops say. There also was a message
A Key Largo man was already serving a year in county jail for heroin possession when he received a greeting card in the mail late last week with contents inside that will likely add time to his sentence, according to police.
Jail deputies in Key West became suspicious when inspecting the card last Wednesday and found one of the flaps had a bulge inside. Originally, they thought it might be a battery-operated speaker for a music card.
After opening it, they found it contained .7 grams of heroin, according to a Monroe County Sheriff’s Office arrest report.
The card also had a written message to the recipient, Bryce Oliphant:
“Bryce, We hope to keep your business upon your release. Please keep us in mind as you move forward with your affairs.”
It was signed, “Joseph, Joseph and Brown Associates.”
The Islamorada return address on the envelope does not exist, and deputies found no company called Joseph, Joseph and Brown Associates, according to the report.
The woman cops say sent the card, Brittany Barber, 31, was arrested on a warrant Monday night at her Tavernier home on felony charges of using a two-way device to facilitate a felony and introducing contraband into a jail facility.
She was released early Tuesday morning on a $50,000 bond. Reached for comment about the card and drugs, she said, “Is that what it is? I don’t know anything about that.”
A judge sentenced Oliphant, 40, to a year in jail in August for heroin possession, after he and Barber were found passed out in a running car parked at a gas pump at the Circle K station at mile marker 99 in Key Largo on July 30, according to court records.
He was arrested in jail Monday on the same charges faced by Barber.
After finding the heroin in jail last week, deputies put the card back in the envelope, sans drugs, and delivered it to Oliphant. He immediately made a phone call to Barber, which was recorded from the jail, and told her he received the card, but someone ripped it open. Barber responded that she may have messed up gluing the card back together, according to the arrest report.
Detectives say Oliphant has called Barber’s phone repeatedly since he was locked up July 30, including 175 times between Jan. 1 and Jan. 30. Unbeknownst to Oliphant and Barber, apparently, is that all calls made from inside the jail are recorded.
In several of the calls, Oliphant is heard instructing Barber how she should send his “medicine” to him.
In a call made Jan. 26, Barber asked Oliphant tips for sending the drugs, the report states. According to transcripts included in the report, he told her: “Cut off the top.”
Barber responded, according to the report, “OK, and like glue it shut?” Oliphant replied, “Yeah. Probably have to use Superglue or something though,” according to the transcript.
On the call Jan. 29, the day Oliphant opened the card and found no heroin, both he and Barber were recorded discussing what they thought went wrong with the package.
Oliphant, said, “It’s all kinds of f***ed up right now.”
Barber, according to the report, responded: “I guess I tried to glue it shut and maybe I made it worse, what do you think?”
