A week-long investigation by the federal Bureau of Prisons found a loaded gun, cell phones, and homemade weapons in the same Manhattan jail where Jeffrey Epstein killed himself last summer, raising questions whether the facility’s security was as secure as initially thought.
The Bureau of Prisons found the contraband Thursday, although it was still unclear when and how they entered the prison. “All of these items pose a significant threat to the safety and security of the facility as well as the public,” the agency said in a statement.
The search began last week after officials received a tip that a gun may have been smuggled in, and subsequently placed the jail on lockdown “in order to protect the public, staff and inmates until a comprehensive search could be completed.”
The Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan currently houses a number of high-profile inmates, including attorney Michael Avenatti, who was convicted last month of trying to extort sportswear giant Nike. Besides Epstein, it has also housed Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, who was sentenced to life behind bars after a trial in New York.
But the jail came under intense scrutiny after Epstein’s death in August, with two employees arrested in November for falsifying records to cover up that they had not checked on Epstein the night he died.
Footage of Epstein’s unsuccessful suicide attempt in July also “no longer exists,” prosecutors admitted in January after a third reversal in the case of accused quadruple murderer and former cop Nick Tartaglione, Epstein’s cellmate at the time of the attempt.