After more than a dozen staff members at the Stillwater Correctional Facility became ill after inhaling smoke from an illegal synthetic drug, the Minnesota Department of Corrections put the prison on lockdown searching for the synthetic marijuana drug called K-2.

DOC Commissioner Paul Schnell told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS investigators found a substantial amount of paper material they believed was soaked with the synthetic drug, and there are now multiple investigations underway outside the prison to determine who’s responsible for smuggling the drugs into the prison.

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“That lockdown was full-scale, across the facility, so that we could apply the needed staff,” said Schnell.  “And, we do have active cases that we’re looking at, people on the outside who we believe have been involved in this. There are ongoing investigations into that.”

Schnell said since the first of the year across all Minnesota prisons, there have been three suspected drug overdose deaths and 75 non-lethal overdoses.

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“You address this and then they find some other mechanism, or way, to try and introduce contraband into the facilities,” said Schnell.

So far, Schnell said no inmates have been charged with possessing the illegal K-2.