Audrain County ex-jailer accused of being part of drug conspiracy

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

A fired Audrain County jailer has been accused of helping smuggle drugs into the jail including heroin.

Prosecutor Jacob Shellabarger charged Kyle M. McIntire on Thursday with one count of felony drug distribution. A probable cause statement filed by Audrain County Sheriff's Major James Shrader says an inmate told jailers that other inmates had taken a powdery substance on Sept. 26, according to a probable case statement.

A search turned up paraphernalia and heroin and a test indicated possible traces of methamphetamine and a drug similar to fentanyl, the statement says.

McIntire allegedly admitted under interrogation that Jameera Keen, who was also charged, delivered him pills inside a sandwich while he was working that night, the statement says. McIntire says he then delivered the drugs to an inmate, according to the statement.

Shrader told ABC 17 News that McIntire was arrested Wednesday afternoon and has been fired from the sheriff's office.

Shellabarger asked for no bond, writing in a memo that McIntire was part of a "larger drug trafficking conspiracy" and that the heroin could have killed an inmate.

"This defendant was in a position of public trust and used that position to smuggle illegal contraband into our jail, endangering everyone in the facility," Shellabarger wrote.

Keen was charged with conspiracy to commit a felony and felony drug possession along with misdemeanor possession of drug paraphernalia.

The sheriff's office later said in a news release that McIntire was being held in the Monroe County Jail.