LITCHFIELD An inmate at the Moose Lake Correctional Facility allegedly swallowed balloons filled with the controlled substance clonazepam and chewing tobacco to smuggle them into the prison.
His wife, Valys Marie Provost, 36, of Cosmos, has now been charged in Meeker County District Court with three felony counts and two gross misdemeanor counts for conspiring with her husband, Shawn Provost, 37, to sneak in the substances.
Valys Provost has been charged with two felonies and two misdemeanors for introduction and conspiracy of contraband articles into a correctional facility, as well as a felony charge for fifth-degree possession of a controlled substance.
The inmate, Shawn Michael Provost, 37, is facing identical charges.
According to the criminal complaint, investigators were first alerted to the situation during a monitored phone call between the couple. In the call, the inmate mentioned items his wife had given him and that "one of them had not come out."
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In a recorded statement, he later admitted to swallowing items he intended to retrieve after he defecated. Shawn Provost said his wife had slipped him the balloons in a holding room at the Meeker County Courthouse in Litchfield while the two were meeting with their attorney. He allegedly ingested the balloons after the attorney left the room.
The inmate was placed in a solitary dry cell at the prison until he was able to produce the items. The evidence produced included three tied balloons with chewing tobacco and the clonazepam.
