Sheriff: Kingman prison transfer came with 31 meth bags

• Pinal County jail finds inmate with 31 baggies of meth.
• Inmate was transferred to Pinal following prison riots near Kingman.
• Sheriff Paul Babeu calling for other facilities absorbing prisoners to be on alert.

An inmate recently transferred to a Pinal County Jail following last weekend's riots at a private prison near Kingman was found stashing 31 bags of methamphetamine, the Pinal County Sheriff's Office says.

Sheriff's officials say the drugs almost certainly came from the Kingman prison and were calling for other facilities absorbing Kingman transfers to be on alert.

Geraldo Beltran-Torres, 20, is serving a four-year sentence for possession of a dangerous drug. He was one of the more than 1,100 prison inmates recently transported from the prison after the riots rendered the facilities uninhabitable.

The Pinal County Jail absorbed 380 of these inmates. Each prisoner underwent a strip search during the transfer process, and officials employed K-9 units to detect any contraband.

But it was a Pinal County Sheriff's Detention officer who first flagged Beltran-Torres early Tuesday evening during a routine cell check, sheriff's officials say. The officer looked into the inmate's cell window and saw him drop something onto the ground, pick it up and put it under his mattress.

"The detention officer confronted Beltran about what he put under his mattress and Beltran said, 'Nothing, it's just trash,'" according to a statement from the Sheriff's Office.

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Sheriff's officials said that as the officer began to look under the mattress, Beltran put something in his mouth, swallowed it and gagged. He had completely swallowed the object before medical attention arrived.

Officers found 31 small plastic bags of methamphetamine under Beltran-Torres' mattress, all stuffed inside a larger plastic baggie, the Sheriff's Office says. Officials say the drugs weighed 16.9 grams.

Beltran-Torres was hospitalized and treated for the possible ingestion of drugs. He was later returned to the detention facility.

Pinal County officials say they plan to file new charges against Beltran-Torres: possession of a dangerous drug and promoting of prison contraband.

Issa Arnita, a spokesman for the facility's operator, Management & Training Corp., said every inmate was searched before the transfer, per policy.

"We are grateful that Pinal County staff confiscated a dangerous and harmful drug from the inmate in their custody," he said in an e-mailed statement.

Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu said other facilities taking in the inmates should be the lookout for contraband. He said the inmate likely had ingested the drugs or had them hidden in his body during intake.

"Drugs are as valuable as diamonds inside prisons and this large amount of methamphetamine clearly came with this prisoner from Kingman," Babeu said.

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