DuPage jail X-ray finds heroin inside woman
DuPage County sheriff's deputies found 14 bags of heroin inside a woman thanks to an X-ray machine purchased last year to reduce the need for strip searches, officials said.
Victoria L. Cooper, 39, of the 4000 block of North Washington Street in Westmont, was arrested Friday on a warrant on charges of manufacturing or delivery of heroin and possession of a controlled substance, according to a news release from the DuPage County Sheriff's office. Cooper was booked in DuPage County jail, whose X-ray machine images showed bags containing a total 12 grams of heroin inside her genital region, the release said.
After the heroin bags were found, prosecutors added a charge for Cooper of aggravated possession of a controlled substance, the release said.
"This machine, which we installed just more than a year ago, gives us a passive, and extremely accurate, methodology to identify and locate contraband," Sheriff James Mendrick said. "The scanner, along with the watchful eyes of our deputies, kept dangerous narcotics from entering our correctional center population."
All prisoners are asked to go through the $150,000 X-ray machine that does a four-second, full body scan, DuPage County Sheriff's director of communications Justin Kmitch said. If prisoners refuse, they go through traditional body search procedures.
The scanner is manned by deputies of the same gender as the prisoner, Kmitch said. If objects show up in the images, prisoners are asked to remove them or are taken to a hospital for removal, he said.
Also arrested Friday was Michael J. Young, 42, also of the 4000 block of North Washington Street in Westmont, on an outstanding warrant for charges of criminal drug conspiracy with intent to manufacture or distribute heroin and possession of a controlled substance, the release said.
The warrants against Young and Cooper were obtained in May during an investigation stemming from neighbors' complaints about drugs being dealt from the residence, the release said.
Cooper's bail was set at $35,000 and her next court date Nov. 16.
Young's bail was set at $100,000 bail and his next court date is Nov. 2.