Manatee County detectives arrest suspect who provided drugs to jail cook for inmates
PALMETTO, Fla. - A Manatee County Jail cook was arrested last week for smuggling illegal drugs to inmates. Now, detectives say they arrested the person who provided the narcotics.
On Tuesday, 35-year-old Jena Marie Greco was booked into jail. Investigators said Greco told them she met with 64-year-old Gretchen "Granny" Rupprecht, the former jail cook, on "separate occasions and provided her with cash, cigarettes, vape pens and items containing a liquid form of THC."
Rupprecht would then bring those items into the jail and hand them to inmate Corey Crews, detectives said.
According to investigators, deputies inside the jail noticed an inmate who appeared to be impaired on Jan. 23. They began to question him and took him to get medical help to figure out what was going on.
Sheriff Rick Wells says the inmate admitted to taking drugs and a search of his cell revealed a vape pen containing THC and delta 8.
After making this discovery, detectives were called in to check the pods and found more vape pens, as well as a few eye drop containers with a clear liquid inside that, tested to be methamphetamine.
As detectives began talking to the inmates, they kept bringing up the name "Granny."
"The inmates talking to the detectives kept saying that "Granny" was working in the kitchen and kept bringing contraband into the facility. She would give the contraband to Cruz, who was really the ringleader of this little, illegal drug operation," Sheriff Wells said during a press conference last week.
Wells added that "Granny," whose real name is Gretchen Rupprecht had been working in the kitchen of the jail for about a year and a half.
He said she befriended Cruz, who also worked in the kitchen, and would meet up with one of Cruz’s contacts outside of the jail to purchase the contraband. According to Wells, Rupprecht was paid $25 per meeting, for a total of $100 for four meet-ups.
"’Granny’ is now sitting in jail, eating the same food that she would once prepare," Wells said.
Inmate Adrian Conde will also be charged with conspiracy to introduce meth into a county detention facility and possession of a vape device on the grounds of a county detention facility.
Inmate Dalton Cook is also being charged with the introduction of THC into a county facility, introduction of a vape device into a county facility and introduction of cigarettes into a county facility.
Wells says all three inmates who have been charged were friends on the outside.