Tri-Cities mom charged with smuggling drugs to jailed son. He’s locked up for murder
The 75-year-old mother of a Pasco murder suspect is accused of smuggling drug-packed soap bars to her son in the Franklin County jail.
Rosa Rodriguez-Castillo allegedly received four bars of soap from her son’s friend and arranged for them to be delivered by her caregiver and juvenile granddaughter.
The drugs, intended for Florentino Jai Castillo, included a prescription medication used for opioid addiction and marijuana.
The transactions happened last July, though Rodriguez-Castillo was not arrested until this Tuesday.
Rodriguez-Castillo appeared Wednesday in Franklin County Superior Court and was granted release on her personal recognizance. She will return to court in February to enter a plea.
The Pasco woman is charged with two felonies: possession with intent to deliver suboxone and second-degree introducing contraband into a detention facility.
Her son, Castillo, has been locked up since July 2018 for the death of Michelle Hudnall. The 40-year-old mother’s remains were found along the Columbia River north of Pasco, nearly two months after she went missing.
Co-defendants Benny Rodriguez Lozano Jr. and Guadalupe A. Sanchez long ago pleaded guilty for their roles in the killing.
Castillo’s trial is scheduled this August. His bail is set at $250,000.
Court documents in Rodriguez-Castillo’s case show the mother and son had two conversations on July 16. Both conversations were recorded on the jail’s phone and video system.
Rodriguez-Castillo told her son that “the soap was not the right soap for his medical condition, and continued to have the soap delivered to the Franklin County Corrections Center.”
The medical condition that requires special soap for the incarcerated Castillo is not disclosed in the documents.
Four bars of soap were delivered to the Pasco facility on July 22 inside a plastic bag from a fast-food restaurant.
Medical staff examined the packaging and quickly noticed the soap had been altered, with drugs placed in a hole inside three of the bars, court documents said.
Franklin County sheriff’s deputies then were notified, and a detective cut into the bars to identify the drugs.
One held a blue bag with “a brown sticky substance” recognized as marijuana, and the other two held the suboxone strips, documents said.
“The sheriff’s office will continue to diligently and aggressively investigate and arrest individuals who attempt to jeopardize the safety and security of our jail staff and inmates,” sheriff’s Capt. Monty Huber said in a news release.
Castillo has not been charged in connection with the attempted drug delivery as of Thursday.
Anyone with information on the smuggling is asked to call Huber at 509-545-3501.
This story was originally published January 27, 2021 at 2:48 PM.