Woman Sentenced Three Years for Mailing Drug-Soaked Letters to Otay Mesa Jail

A woman who mailed letters soaked in fentanyl and methamphetamine to a San Diego County jail was sentenced this week to three years in federal prison.

Katherine Smothers, 34, sent multiple letters to an inmate at the George Bailey Detention Facility in Otay Mesa between December 2022 and April 2023, according to the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department.

According to her plea agreement filed in San Diego federal court, the letters were intended for an inmate who was in a romantic relationship with Smothers.

The letters were sent using false names and return addresses to hide that they were sent by Smothers, and the pair would speak in coded conversations on jail calls regarding when the next letters would arrive, the plea agreement states.

Smothers was arrested in April 2023.

— City News Service