According to Sheriff Travis Daugherty, a recent arrest led to multiple drug overdoses inside the Blaine County Jail.
Daugherty said that a drug arrest was made at a Watonga casino where a female from Oregon was taken into custody and charged with multiple drug infractions. Items confiscated included fentanyl and cocaine. The woman was later identified through jail records as Shannon Lynn Amacher, 48, of Portland.
She was taken into custody on July 18 and placed in isolation. She had been searched and strip searched, according to Daugherty. On or around July 21 Amacher was released into the general jail population and two other inmates overdosed on fentanyl that same day.
Daugherty believes Amacher had hidden drugs in a body cavity and smuggled them into the cells.
The overdosed inmates were administered Narcan as an antidote to the drugs they had apparently crushed and snorted.
“Kudos to the staff for saving lives,” the sheriff said.
He continued that the fentanyl is pressed into pills masquerading as oxycontin. They are produced, he said, in Mexico with ingredients and machinery from China. The disguise is so well-done it can fool even trained investigators like those in Blaine County who were handling the substance as if it were oxycontin, unaware they could be at serious risk from skin contact with fentanyl. “That’s how deadly it is,” Daugherty said.
Amacher now faces charges of possession of controlled substance(s), distribution of controlled substance(s), four charges of possession with intent to distribute, possession of paraphernalia, possession of contraband by an inmate and three charges of first-degree attempted murder. That includes a charge for the endangered investigator.
In addition to the goings- on at the jail, the Blaine County Sheriff's Office recovered a significant amount of stolen property. Some had been taken in the county and was stored on a property in Midwest City and others were taken in Canadian County and recovered here including a welding trailer and welder.
Meanwhile the cell phones, internet phones and the internet itself was down at the SO all day Sunday. That added to an already hectic situation.
As the sheriff said, “It’s hot and people are acting crazy.”