Sheriff: Harnett County mother, son smuggled drugs from nearby hospital into prison

A Harnett County woman is charged with smuggling drugs to her son, who was locked up in jail.

Now both of them are behind bars.

Harnett County Sheriff Wayne Coats explained details of the woman's arrest and revealed the constant battle to keep illegal drugs out of the hands of inmates.

Coats said it's a non-stop battle for law enforcement officers across the country to stop illegal drugs from being snuck into jails. They've been dropped in by drone, they've been passed through fences and they've been thrown over fences. However, this latest scheme he's uncovered is just incredible.

Coats says bars, cells and fences are good at keeping inmates in jail. But they're not doing as good a job at keeping illegal drugs out.

"We got word about somebody who was going to be dropping some stuff over," Coats said. "We set up, we got them. Sure enough, they threw it right over the top of the fence."

They've since closed the road used to make that over-the-fence drug drop off. Coats said the latest drug smuggling case involved 65-year-old Earnie Barbour and her son, 38-year-old David Barbour. David is a habitual felon currently locked up in the Harnett County Detention Center. Coats said Barbour would call his mother and tell him what kind of drugs he wanted.

"She makes arrangements to get it and then he tells her what bathroom to put it in and where to put it," said Coats. "She makes sure she hides it well."

The bathroom the Sheriff is talking about is inside the emergency room of Central Harnett Hospital across the street from the detention center.

"Then he gets sick, or if he's not able to go because he's been so many times and sends somebody else," said Coats. "And they go over there and we just happen to catch the one that went over there search him and that's how we came up with it."

The mother and son now face several charges, including conspiracy to sell and deliver drugs. Their combined bonds total nearly $4 million.

Coats said his battle to keep illegal drugs out of the jail continues.

"We know they're getting them somehow," Coats said. "This is just one way we were able to find this one so we're going to continue to battle this everyday."

The sheriff said the hospital was unaware that their facility was being used to smuggle drugs, but he said he has new policies in place to make sure it doesn't happen again.

Coats plans to share details of this case with sheriffs across the state so they can make sure it's not happening in their detention centers.