PENDLETON, Ind.
A Marion man has been arrested after he was caught throwing a package over a prison fence, police said.
A correctional officer at the Correctional Industrial Facility in Pendleton spotted the man throwing the package over the fence just after 9 a.m., police said.
Troopers from the Indiana State Police post located across the street from the facility swarmed the area and caught the man within minutes, police said.
Franklin Paul Davis, 35, of Marion, was arrested on a preliminary charge of trafficking with an inmate, a Class A misdemeanor.
Police did not reveal what was in the package, but they said Davis would have been charged with a felony if it had contained drugs or a cellphone.
A nearby elementary schools was placed on lockdown during the search.
"Patrols around the prison facilities have been stepped up day and night by ourselves and Department of Corrections staff to prevent these incidents of trafficking," said Detective Bob May, prison liaison for the Pendleton Post.
Investigators said oftentimes packages are wrapped with fish hooks facing out or even magnets so inmates can throw down a homemade rope to pull the packages into the second fence.
Behind bars, a cellphone with Internet capabilities can go for as much as $2,000, while a pound of tobacco can bring in as much as $1,600, police said.
Anyone with information about inmate trafficking is asked to call the Pendleton State Police Post at 800-527-4752.
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