A Burlington man was sentenced last week to 26 years in prison for distributing coloring sheets, greeting cards, letters, envelopes and other paper products soaked in methamphetamine to fellow inmates at the Muscatine County Jail.
Kelly Everett Mitchell, 47, pleaded guilty in January in U.S. District Court to conspiracy to distribute and possess with the intent to distribute methamphetamine and phentermine, and providing contraband to inmates of a federal prison.
Mitchell admitted that while in the custody of the United States Marshals Service and detained in the Muscatine County Jail, where he was incarcerated on charges of distributing methamphetamine, he regularly received coloring sheets, greeting cards, letters, envelopes and other paper products which had been soaked in a liquid laced with methamphetamine and phentermine, the U.S. District Attorney’s Office for the Southern of Iowa said in a news release.
Mitchell further admitted he provided a portion of those laced papers to other inmates housed at the Muscatine County Jail.
The case was investigated by the Southeast Iowa Narcotics Task Force, Des Moines County Sheriff’s Department, Muscatine County Sheriff’s Department, Illinois State Police, Macomb (Illinois) Police Department, Iowa Division of Narcotics Enforcement, United States Drug Enforcement Agency, and the United States Marshals Service.