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Inmates Among 8 Busted In Drug Smuggling Ring: Berks DA

Eight people including four inmates have been charged in connection with a drug-smuggling operation at the Berks County Jail, authorities have announced. 

Eight people are charged in connection with a drug smuggling ring at the Berks County Jail, pictured, says DA John T. Adams.

Eight people are charged in connection with a drug smuggling ring at the Berks County Jail, pictured, says DA John T. Adams.

Photo Credit: Google Maps (Street View)

The arrests came after a months-long investigation uncovered a conspiracy between inmates and people outside the jail to smuggle in marijuana and Suboxone, an opioid withdrawal drug, said Berks County District Attorney John T. Adams.

Investigators believe the incarcerated suspects — 41-year-old Brian Oliver, 30-year-old Bryan Williams, 32-year-old Thomas Reimert, and 38-year-old Andre Keyes — encouraged their contacts outside the jail to obtain the drugs and gave them detailed descriptions of how to sneak them inside. 

Police said at least four people outside the jail — 21-year-old Ashley Pilozo of Robesonia, 27-year-old Brittany Moyer of Sinking Spring, 37-year-old Hazel Velasquez of Reading, and 35-year-old David Marshall of Wernersville — worked to gather Suboxone from "heroin addicts, clinics, and drug dealers."

The drugs were then mailed to the jail, shipped in manilla envelopes stamped "attorney/client privilege" and hidden in a hollowed-out stack of papers, investigators said. 

Police also said they uncovered evidence that Moyer illegally bought at least three guns for Williams under her name while the latter was incarcerated. 

Six of the suspects are in police custody, prosecutors wrote. Authorities have spoken with lawyers for Pilozo and Moyer, and say the pair are expected to turn themselves in on Tuesday night. 

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