Baldwin officers participate in contraband operation at Escambia County Correctional Facility

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ATMORE, Alabama — More than 300 officials, including Baldwin County Sheriff’s deputies and officers from the Bay Minette Police Department, conducted a predawn operation to remove illegal contraband from the G.K. Fountain Correctional Facility in Atmore on Monday.

According to a release issued Tuesday by the Alabama Department of Corrections, the operation recovered 621 makeshift weapons, 51 contraband cellphones, 240 grams of synthetic drugs, and seven gallons of an alcoholic beverage that inmates refer to as julep or pruno.

In addition to Baldwin County officials, officers from the Atmore and Brewton police departments, along with deputies from the Clarke and Escambia County sheriff’s offices, participated in the operation.

Supporting state agencies included the Alabama Pardons and Paroles, Alabama Law Enforcement Agency’s K-9 unit, Alabama Emergency Management Agency, and the Alabama Department of Transportation.

The agencies conducted a complete sweep of the prison including dorms that house more than 1,230 inmates, according to the release. Monday’s 10-hour operation was the sixth led by the Alabama Department of Corrections’ Operations and Investigations and Intelligence Divisions. The ADOC carried out the first major joint contraband operation at the St. Clair Correctional Facility in Springville in February.

The public should contact the ADOC Investigations and Intelligence Division at 1-866-293-7799 with information that may lead to the arrest of anyone attempting to introduce illegal contraband into state prisons. The public may also report suspicious activity by going to the ADOC Website at doc.alabama.gov/investigationrequest.