LACONIA, N.H. — An elementary school principal in Massachusetts has been accused of trying to smuggle cigarettes and raw tobacco into the prison where her son was an inmate.
Police said Linda McLaughlin, principal of Peter W. Reilly Elementary School in Lowell, Mass., left cigarettes, disposable lighters and raw tobacco on the ground near the Lakes Region Facility in Laconia last month.
Police had been investigating McLaughlin, 55, of Dracut, Mass., for several weeks and arrested her Friday after watching her make a delivery.
They said officials at the prison monitored a phone conversation between McLaughlin and her son in which she discussed plans to place the items outside the fence on Nov. 17. Detectives watched as a car pulled up at the fence that night, threw a package and drove off. Police traced the car to McLaughlin's home.
The facility houses both minimum- and medium-security inmates. Minimum-security inmates have access to the outer perimeter of the property, and police said they would have been able to pick up contraband goods left there.
"The drop is made outside of the prison grounds, and prisoners that are in low-to-moderate custody will leave the prison grounds, retrieve the contraband and bring back into prison grounds," Lt. Bill Clary said.
Police said McLaughlin's son, Nathan Archambault, 30, was a minimum-security inmate serving time for a parole violation stemming from an earlier charge of cocaine and heroin possession. Archambault has been transferred to the state prison in Concord and could lose visitation privileges for up to 100 days.
A prisoner who tried to collect the tobacco but was intercepted also has been transferred to Concord to face a disciplinary hearing, said Department of Corrections spokesman Jeff Lyons.
McLaughlin and Archambault are scheduled to appear in court next month.
Smoking has been banned in all state prison facilities since 1999.
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