MIDDLEFIELD, NY — Two men face charges after authorities say they smuggled synthetic drugs into the Otsego County Correctional Facility through legal mail.
Alexander Gutierrez, 24, of Milford, was arrested May 27, 2026, and charged with introducing dangerous contraband into prison in the first degree and conspiracy in the fifth degree.
Jordan Gutierrez-Champen, 28, who was incarcerated at the time, was arrested May 28, 2026, on the same charges.
The Otsego County Sheriff’s Office said the arrests followed an investigation into suspicious activity that occurred inside the correctional facility in 2025.
Corrections staff intercepted a letter hidden in a bible that detailed the receipt of contraband through legal mail to an inmate, according to the sheriff’s office.
Investigators obtained a search warrant for Gutierrez-Champen’s legal mail in conjunction with United States Postal Inspectors.
A page saturated with a controlled substance later identified as the synthetic cannabinoid K2 was found in the mail, authorities said.
Deputies located Gutierrez in the Town of Otego on May 27, 2026, and took him into custody.
He was processed at the sheriff’s office and appeared in centralized arraignment, where he was released on his own recognizance.
Deputies responded to the Lakeview Correctional Facility in Chautauqua County on May 28, 2026, and took Gutierrez-Champen into custody upon his release.
He was transported to the Otsego County Sheriff’s Office, processed and held in the correctional facility to await centralized arraignment.
Both defendants are scheduled to appear in Town of Middlefield Court.
