Pubdate: 10 Jan 1999 Source: Oakland Tribune (CA) Contact: http://www.newschoice.com/newspapers/alameda/tribune/ Copyright: 1999 MediaNews Group, Inc. and ANG Newspapers Page: 3 DRUGS IN PRISONS SACRAMENTO -- The dealers traded in marijuana, methamphetamine, cocaine and heroin, through inmate net-works in San Quentin, New Fo1som and Ironwood state prisons. One of them pocketed nearly $20,000, investigators believe. Another worked in concert with a parolee on the run, they say. A third may have been one of as many as a half dozen suppliers in his ring. And to the consternation of the Department of Corrections, three of the accused drug king-pins were their own officers. "It looks at this point like we're going to be able to take care of a pretty good-slzed cancer," Corrections Director Dal Terhune said. "We don't like to find It, but when we do, we want to root it out" Smuggling `significant' Corrections officials do not have any statistics about Institutional drug-smuggling cases involving officers and other prison employees. But they said the cases rep-resent three of the more signifi-cant employee drug-smuggling operations they have unearthed in recent years. They also said the uncoverings account for some of the most fruitful work to date of the Department's fledgling Office of Internal Affairs., created 1ast summer as a result of the legislative hearings into abuses at Corcoran State Prison. "We're trying to send a message," said OIA Special Agent Dave Mansfield, who worked the New Folsom and San Quentln cases. "Somebody's going to get spanked behind this stuff." Big case in Mojave OIA Investigators culminated their biggest employee smuggling case this week In the Mojave Desert. At Ironwood State Prison near Blythe, In Riverside County, some 50 officers under the direction of the Sacramento-based OIA swept through 130 cells looking for drugs, finding unspecified quantities of unidentified narco-contraband, officials said. They identified the source as Correctional Officer Richard Melendez, 28. He was arrested Dec. 30. More Arrests may Follow An undisclosed number of arrests may follow, according to Investigators. "I don't think you could count them on one hand," Ter-hune said. He added that some of the suspects are non-sworn staff. Nothing In the Ironwood Investigation has been turned over yet to prosecutors. according to the Riverside County District Attorney's Office. The Ironwood case followed other officer busts involving inmate drug operations in California State Prison, Sacramento also known as New Folsom and San Quentin Prison. - --- MAP posted-by: Mike Gogulski