Charges: Corrections officer sent drug-laced mail to inmates

A Minnesota corrections officer is accused of mailing drug-laced printouts of song lyrics and motivational notes to inmates.

Grace Marie Telfer, 24, of Minnetonka, was charged via summons Monday with one count of introducing contraband to a state prison.

A criminal complaint states, the Office of Special Investigations started looking into the arrival of narcotics at several facilities in March 2021. One of the people found to be involved was Telfer, a corrections officer at the Shakopee prison at the time.

In the complaint, officers noted “countless phone calls” where Telfer and inmates openly talked about smuggling drugs into the prisons.

Investigators learned Telfer would saturate mail with a liquid spray of K2, a synthetic marijuana, and send them into Minnesota Department of Corrections facilities by using various return addresses.

Telfer resigned from her job as a corrections officer on April 13, 2021, according to the complaint. Three days later, investigators executed a search warrant at her home and the home of a former inmate who was also suspected of being involved in the scheme. Authorities found computers and printers, envelopes, a syringe with suspected THC and paperwork in the name of “Gina Dixon” in Telfer’s home, and similar items in the other suspect’s residence, as well as digital scales, ink stampers and identification cards for another inmate.

Telfer was also interviewed by a U.S. Postal inspector and admitted to spraying K2 onto printer paper, then printing various items, including song lyrics, onto the paper before mailing it to inmates at the Stillwater and Faribault prisons. The complaint adds that she also admitted to using a “legal mail” stamp on the items and using various law firms’ addresses for return addresses so the mail would get to inmates faster.

She also wrote motivational quotes to one of the four inmates she admitted to sending K2-saturated papers.

Telfer said the inmates used the K2-saturated mail to get high, and she sent the drug-laced mail to the inmates to help them make money, the complaint states. For her role, she admitted to making $3,500.

If convicted, Telfer faces up to 10 years in prison. Her first court appearance is set for April 14.