1 arrested, 1 sought after drug-filled Bible delivered to Arkansas jail, sheriff's office says

Two Arkansans are accused of trying to smuggle drugs to a jail inmate using a Bible, authorities say.

In a news release, the Baxter County sheriff's office said a man came to the county jail Aug. 1 to deliver the book to 45-year-old Mikel Blaine Short. The Bible was taken by a jail supervisor, who reportedly found drugs, including suspected methamphetamine, marijuana and tobaccos inside the book's binding in vacuum-sealed bags.

Using video from the Baxter County jail, authorities were able to identify the man who took the Bible to the detention center as Kevin Eugene Burch, 31, the release said. According to the sheriff's office, further investigation revealed that Burch and Short planned the crime with a third person, 28-year-old Cynthia Marie Piatt.

Piatt was arrested Tuesday at a home on Baxter County Road 508, authorities said. While investigators were at her home, she reportedly gave 25.1 grams of meth to a 17-year-old girl to hide, but the handoff was discovered, and the drugs were seized.

Read more: http://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2017/aug/09/1-arrested-1-sought-after-drug-filled-bible-delive/