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LOGAN — Investigators believe two men are responsible for selling a narcotic while in the Cache County Jail.
Brandon Bullock, 41, of Taylorsville, and Caleb Abney, 25, of Heber City, were each charged Friday in Logan's 1st District Court with possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance, a first-degree felony; and possession of a controlled substance in a correctional facility, a second-degree felony.
Cache County sheriff's deputies began an investigation on Feb. 15 after hearing about comments made in the district court about the availability of drugs in the Logan jail.
Deputies were later told that two new transfers into the jail were allegedly responsible for the drugs, which charging documents say is Suboxone — a combination of the opioid buprenorphine and naloxone, a substance used to reverse effects of opioids, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration. The two new transfers were Bullock and Abney, charging documents allege, and investigators later found that four people in their housing unit tested positive for buprenorphine.
Surveillance footage allegedly showed Bullock and Abney in the back of a housing cell with books, which deputies found suspicious. During a search of the cell, a deputy found "a small piece of orange film wrapped in paper torn from the page of a book," which she believed to be Suboxone, charging documents state.
Investigators later reviewed phone calls made in the jail where they said they heard Bullock talking with someone outside of the jail about his "tax return." Bullock talked about how the amount will increase when he is moved back into the jail's general population from a separate cell, and he also mentioned specific dollar amounts, leading deputies to believe he was speaking in code, according to the charges.
Authorities later listened to Abney's phone calls, where they allegedly heard him telling a man to send money to Bullock's jail account. Deputies were later told that someone in the jail had bought a Suboxone strip by paying Bullock and letting Abney make calls from another inmate's account, charging documents state. Deputies were also told by another inmate that "Brandon and Caleb were pushing Suboxone" in a section of the jail, according to the charges.
Bullock and Abney made their initial appearances for the charges on Friday, court records say, and are scheduled back in court on Feb. 28.
According to court records and the Utah Department of Corrections, both Bullock and Abney were in the Cache County Jail serving prison sentences at the time of their new charges.
In August 2019, Bullock was sentenced to a prison term of zero to five years after pleading guilty to aggravated assault in Salt Lake County. Abney's most recent prior conviction stems from a 2021 case out of Utah County that included him pleading guilty to unlawful possession of a financial card. He was sentenced to a term of zero to five years in prison, court records show.
