An undercover St. Patrick’s Day sting inside the Sheriff Perry Hall Inmate Detention Facility in Bunnell ended with three inmates staring at fresh felony counts after deputies say a jailhouse drug market was quietly operating during religious services. According to investigators, Suboxone and fentanyl were traded for commissary items, with coffee packets doubling as a kind of behind-bars currency.
Detectives with the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office Special Investigations Unit, working with the Problem Area Crime Enforcement team, Criminal Intelligence, the K-9 Unit and detention deputies, moved in during an evening church service on March 17 and arrested Joshua Siedel, 32, Caleb Tucker, 30, and Stephen Horton, 46. As outlined in a release from the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office, deputies say they found Suboxone packaged for distribution in Siedel’s cell and residue that later tested positive for fentanyl in Tucker’s cell, and that Siedel and Tucker were identified as the main distributors.
In the same release, Sheriff Rick Staly did not exactly undersell the bust, calling it a decisive takedown. “This guy thought he was the El Chapo of the Green Roof Inn, but luck ran out for him and his accomplices this St. Patrick’s Day,” Staly said. The agency also stated there is currently no evidence that employees or outside contractors helped the inmates.
Undercover tactics and the Green Roof Inn
According to local reporting and the sheriff’s materials, deputies say some of the deals went down during congregations inside the jail, where coffee packets were swapped for narcotics and other commissary items. The sheriff’s office has run similar undercover sweeps and controlled buys to crack down on contraband in recent years, FlaglerLive reports. Deputies have also intercepted Suboxone and other drugs smuggled into the facility through nontraditional means such as glued-in greeting cards, as covered by local TV outlet WFTV.
What the law says
Under Florida law, bringing drugs into a county jail is not just frowned upon, it is explicitly criminalized. Florida Statutes §951.22, as published by the Florida Legislature, lists narcotics and other items as contraband in county detention facilities and makes certain violations a felony. Drug sale and possession-with-intent offenses are covered separately under Florida Statutes §893.13, with penalties that depend on the substance and amount, according to the Florida Legislature. Together, those statutes form the legal framework prosecutors are expected to use in cases tied to narcotics distribution inside jails.
Next steps
The Flagler County Sheriff’s Office says the investigation is still active, with detectives continuing to review evidence before prosecutors decide on final charges and filings. Local coverage of the operation and subsequent arrests has appeared in area outlets, including the Tampa Free Press, while the three inmates remain booked on the new counts detailed by the sheriff’s office.
