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Scheme to reel in pot at county jail hits a snag

Posted at 2:29 PM, Aug 03, 2013
and last updated 2013-08-03 16:29:10-04

By David Simpson

for CNN

(CNN) — It has to be difficult to outfit a fishing expedition when you’re in jail.

A pair of incarcerated anglers in Florida had to find a line they could cast six stories down, plus an accomplice outside to put marijuana and tobacco on their hook.

It may have been the alleged accomplice’s fault that they had to try to reel in the goodies in a flimsy plastic grocery bag. But all three of them got into trouble when the bag and the contraband were discovered hanging outside the fourth floor of the Pinellas County jail.

The sheriff’s office said it charged three men this week with introducing contraband into the jail. The plan, a sheriff’s statement said, was for inmates Mark Matthew Keating, 45, and Phillip William Henderson, 38, to drop a nylon rope from the jail’s sixth-floor recreation yard.

Outside the jail, the alleged accomplice attached 29 grams of marijuana worth $1,500, tobacco products and lighters, the sheriff’s office said.

Authorities arrested Eric Scott Snook, 41, on charges that he was the accomplice.

After the bag was discovered Monday night, authorities erected a six-foot fence in the area on the ground where the bag was attached.

Joe Sutton contributed to this report.

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