CALIFORNIA IN BRIEF : SAN BERNARDINO : Police Sting Thwarts Jail Drug Smuggling

A six-month investigation at the County Jail has uncovered narcotics trafficking, money laundering and attempted bribery, officials said. Four inmates and seven relatives and friends of prisoners were arrested in the sting operation that used a guard to detect which inmates tried to buy freedom or smuggle drugs into jail, investigators said. The sting was launched in January when an inmate asked the guard to shuttle drugs into the facility, said sheriff’s Sgt. Jerry Davis. The guard’s supervisors told him to play along. The guard was not identified. “It got so bad at one point that people would come up to (the guard), hand him a package of drugs, and say, ‘This is for so-and-so,’ ” Davis said. “This is when he is in full uniform. In the lobby of the jail.”