WISCASSET, Maine — A man accused of stabbing a Waldoboro woman to death this spring has been charged with attempting to sneak oxycodone pills into jail by swallowing them in a deflated balloon.
Earl “Buddy” Bieler, 25, of Waldoboro, an inmate at Two Bridges Jail in Wiscasset, was charged Monday with trafficking in prison contraband, along with inmate Jeffrey Richards, 43, of Dresden and Faylene Bronn, 45, of Litchfield.
James Pease, Maine Drug Enforcement Agency supervisor, said Tuesday that over the course of joint investigations with Two Bridges Jail, officials recently uncovered an apparent drug smuggling plot.
“We were aware that they were going to do it, and we had guys there working that evening,” Pease said. “We believe this is the first attempt.”
According to Pease, Bronn brought four 15-milligram oxycodone pills with her Saturday, hidden in a deflated balloon, as she visited Bieler. Bronn is related to Richards, who was in jail for a probation violation, Pease said.
“Richards was the one who made the initial contact and spearheaded them to organize enough to attempt to do it,” he said.
The plan apparently was for her to drop the balloon on the ground during the visit and for Bieler to pick it up and swallow it, according to a report from Stephen McCausland, spokesman for Maine Department of Public Safety.
“[Drug trafficking] is a fairly ongoing thing in all of the jails,” Pease said. “It’s kind of like fighting the tides. A large percentage of [inmates] are drug addicts.”
Bieler and Corina Durkee, also of Waldoboro, were charged by the state with intentional or knowing murder, attempted murder and burglary after the April 20 attack, which left Rachel Grindal stabbed to death and another woman, Tracey Neild, critically injured.
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