An outside vendor employee is facing drug charges after allegedly supplying illicit drugs to an inmate at the Tarrant County Corrections Center last month.
Aaliyah Lyles, 25, was charged on August 24 with two counts of possession of a controlled substance and one count of possession of a prohibited substance in a correctional facility.
Lyles, a commissary worker at the Fort Worth jail, came under suspicion after a 20-year-old inmate was hospitalized on August 17 for a “medical emergency believed to be related to a narcotic overdose,” according to investigators. The inmate made a full recovery.
Investigators interviewed two inmates who allegedly identified Lyles as the person who smuggled the drugs into the facility. Police also reviewed surveillance evidence in the case.
According to the information contained in a search warrant, Lyle allegedly confessed to bringing Percocet pills into the jail and sneaking them to inmates who came through the commissary. She reportedly told investigators that an inmate had instructed her to call someone outside the jail, and that person offered her $200 to smuggle the drugs into the jail.
The pills contained fentanyl, according to Sheriff Bill Waybourn.
In addition, Lyle was searched when she arrived for work on August 24, and supervisors reportedly found synthetic marijuana and rolling papers on her person.
Investigators are now looking at a possible link between Lyles and Trelynn Wormley, a 23-year-old Tarrant County Corrections inmate who died of a drug overdose on July 20. Waybourn told NBC 5 News that Wormley died of an apparent fentanyl overdose.
Lyles has not been charged directly in connection with Wormley’s death, but the case is still under investigation, according to Waybourn.
Meanwhile, administrators are reportedly reviewing security procedures at the jail to determine if any changes are needed.
Lyles was employed by Keefe Commissary Network, which bills itself as the nation’s leading provider of commissary management services to correctional facilities. She had been working at the jail for about two months. The company did not respond to a request for comment.
The accused faces a $10,000 fine and up to 10 years in prison if convicted on the drug charges. According to jail records, she bonded out after five days in jail. Her attorney was not listed in court records.
