Jail Mail: Florida Inmate Gets Meth Postcards

PALMETTO, FL — A Florida inmate in the Manatee County Jail received three postcards that caught the attention of sheriff's deputies, not for the gushy romantic sentiment on one of them, but for the stamps laced with meth.

"We're always looking for contraband. This is the first time I think in a while that we actually identified it as meth," Randy Warren of the Manatee County Sheriff's Office told Patch on Friday.

The inmate, 52-year-old Kena Little, was arrested inside the woman's pod of the jail earlier this week and charged with principal to attempt introduction of contraband.

Fifty-seven-year-old Charles Ricker was arrested when he showed up at the jail visitation center earlier this week for a scheduled visit with Little, according to the sheriff's office. He is charged with introduction of contraband.

"It's not uncommon for inmates to try to get stuff in and people on the outside to send stuff in," Warren explained.

Deputies got a tip on May 21 to keep an eye out for drugs coming into the jail through the U.S. mail. The postcards arrived a little more than a week later on May 30.

Soon after the initial tip, deputies learned that Little allegedly wanted to get drugs into the jail so she could get high, according to the sheriff's office.

When they examined the postcards, detectives noted a lack of adhesive on the stamps and that the stamps could easily peel off.

"The postcards with the stamps in question were sent to the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office Crime Lab for testing," the sheriff's office said. "Detectives later learned from the MCSO chemist that all three of the stamps tested positive for methamphetamine."

At least one of the postcards carried a romantic sentiment: "Show me what love is," the postcard read. "Today, tomorrow and the rest of my life."