New York woman pleads guilty to mailing drug-soaked documents to prisons

(NEW YORK) — An Albany woman pleaded guilty on Tuesday to mailing drug-soaked documents to inmates in correctional facilities in New York, according to federal prosecutors.

Authorities said Maya McIntosh, 33, sold the illicit documents on social media — and disguised them as legal paperwork when she sent them.

McIntosh, 33, pleaded guilty to “conspiracies to manufacture, distribute and possess with intent to distribute a controlled substance and controlled substance analogue, distribution and possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance and controlled substance analogue, and unlawful possession and use of a means of identification,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of New York said in a press release on Tuesday.

Officials said McIntosh ordered chemicals used to create MDMB-4en-PINACA, a synthetic cannabinoid, in liquid form and then “sprayed and soaked the liquid onto copy paper and business envelopes,” the attorney’s office said.

The documents were placed in U.S. Priority Mail Express envelopes and addressed to inmates at various correctional facilities in New York, prosecutors said.

McIntosh disguised the envelopes as legal mail by “stamping the names of actual attorneys in the return address portion of the envelopes” without the lawyers’ knowledge or permission, according to prosecutors.

This method allowed for the drug-soaked documents to appear as if they were sent by lawyers and “contained legitimate legal paperwork instead of a controlled substance,” the U.S. attorney’s office said.

Officials said McIntosh used social media to sell the sheets and envelopes, with customers paying her to mail the documents to inmates at correctional facilities, the prosecutors said.

McIntosh is believed to have sent the drug-soaked papers between January 2023 through July 2024, prosecutors said.

McIntosh faces up to 20 years of imprisonment in each count, a maximum fine of $1 million on the drug counts, a fine of $250,000 on the remaining counts and a term of supervised release of at least three years and up to life, the U.S. attorney’s office said.

The United States Postal Inspection Service and Homeland Security Investigations are continuing to investigate the case.