Jail medical worker on the run after cops foil drug smuggling try, Georgia police say

A contract medical assistant at a Georgia jail is on the run after authorities caught her attempting to smuggle marijuana, crack cocaine, chewing tobacco and cigarettes into the facility, according to a local sheriff’s office.

Deputies are searching for 24-year-old TreQuera Lashell Ford, a contract medical assistant at the Fulton County Jail in Atlanta, who is wanted for “crossing the guard line of a jail with prohibited items, possession of cocaine and marijuana with the intent to distribute, obstruction of a law enforcement officer and eluding a police officer,” according to a statement posted to the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office Facebook page on Sunday, May 15.

Ford attempted to smuggle 193 grams of “suspected marijuana,” 20 grams of “suspected crack cocaine,” two packs of chewing tobacco and 200 Newport cigarettes into the jail, according to the sheriff’s office. Ford fled when jail personnel tried to question her, deputies said.

Deputies told Fox 5 Atlanta that at the jail’s security checkpoint, Ford admitted to having smoked marijuana before work when a guard said she smelled like the drug. When the security guard was preparing to search her, she said she had left something in her car and ran off, leaving her belongings at the checkpoint, according to the news outlet.

Security guards found the drugs and tobacco products in her bag, according to WSB-TV. In a recorded phone call with one or two inmates, Ford can be heard saying that she “bought saran wrap and coffee,” items that can be used to cover up the scent of drugs, according to the news outlet.

Ford may be driving a black Nissan Altima, according to the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office.

This story was originally published May 16, 2022 at 12:23 PM with the headline "Jail medical worker on the run after cops foil drug smuggling try, Georgia police say."