21 more indicted in prison cellphone, drug smuggling

COLUMBIA (AP) - Prosecutors say 21 more people have been indicted in a scheme to bring cellphones, tobacco, drugs and other contraband into South Carolina prisons.

State Attorney General Alan Wilson said Friday the additional indictments in what his office calls the "Cash Cow" operation included current and former inmates, their families and friends and two prison guards.

Wilson said in a statement the suspects used prison dairy farm, bread deliveries from a Columbia bakery and Statehouse inmate work crews to help move the contraband into prisons.

Seventeen people were indicted on similar charges in November.

Wilson called the ring highly sophisticated and lucrative for some of the defendants.

Wilson and Corrections Department Director Bryan Stirling again called for the federal government to let prisons jam cellphones to help stem the smuggling.