Colorado men arrested trying to send tobacco, meth into Louisiana prison with air cannon

Two Colorado men were recently apprehended outside a federal penitentiary in Louisiana before they could carry out a plan to deliver packages of tobacco and methamphetamine to inmates inside the prison. 

The Greeley men, 18-year-old Jose Francisco Herrera Munox and 19-year-old Angel Gonzales Gutierrez, planned to launch the packages over a security fence with an air cannon. 

That type of cannon uses compressed air. The device is more commonly used by sports teams to send T-shirts into the stands at home events. 

Before they could pull the trigger, the men were caught outside FCI (Federal Corrections Institute) Pollock in central Louisiana by deputies from the Grant Parish Sheriff's Office. The pair was holding onto $112,000 worth of tobacco and $89,500 of meth which they intended to shoot into the prison complex, as described by the sheriff's office. The agency did not clarify whether those estimates reflected the normal price of the goods outside the prison or what the products would fetch once in the hands of inmates dealing them inside. 

The model of air cannon found with the men had the capability to fire items over 350 feet, the sheriff's office stated. 

Munoz and Gutierrez were booked into the Grant Parish Detention Center on Feb. 13. Both were charged with Attempting to Introduce Contraband into a Penal Institution and Attempting to Distribute Methamphetamine.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement assisted in the investigation that led to their arrests. ICE currently has a detainer on Munoz - meaning a request for an exchange into their custody when he is to be released from the county jail - because he is suspected of being in the U.S. illegally, per the sheriff's office. 

FCI Pollock, a high security facility housing 870 men, has suspended inmate visitation indefinitely.