BLOOMFIELD -- A Kansas City, Mo., woman has been sentenced on drug charges after she attempted to smuggle drugs into a Southeast Missouri prison, according to Stoddard County Prosecuting Attorney Briney Welborn.

Debra K. Thomas, 52, previously pleaded guilty to the Class B felony of possession of a controlled substance with the intent to distribute before Presiding Circuit Judge Stephen R. Sharp.

At that time, Sharp ordered that the Missouri Board of Probation and Parole file a Sentence Advisory Report (SAR) prior to Thomas' sentencing hearing. After reviewing the report, Sharp sentenced Thomas to seven years in the Missouri Department of Corrections, suspended execution of sentence, and placed her on four years' supervised probation.

Charges from her stem from an undercover investigation conducted by the Stoddard County Sheriff's Department and the SEMO Drug Task Force last year.

Hefner said an undercover officer in his department was contacted by a confidential informant who works as a prison guard at the Missouri Department of Corrections prison facility in Charleston, Mo.

"The informant stated he had been contacted by a female who wanted him to deliver marijuana to the prison," said Hefner. "The Stoddard County undercover officer met with the informant from the prison at a undisclosed location in Stoddard County to obtain details and arrange a buy bust."

The prison informant informed the undercover officer that the female subject had also sent a set of digital scales to his home residence via Federal Express, with the intention of the scales also being smuggled into the prison. The female suspect also allegedly told the prison informant that when the items were delivered inside the prison, she would then wire him $1,000.

"A short time later, the suspect female arrived at a location in Stoddard County [to meet the prison informant and deliver to him approximately one pound of marijuana] and exited the vehicle carrying a white plastic bag that she handed to the informant," the sheriff continued. "The female then told the informant that she had a message for him, to not break down the package until in was inside the prison."

According to Hefner, Thomas then allegedly got back into her vehicle and drove north on a Stoddard County highway, where other members of the sheriff's department and the MSHP were waiting to arrest her.

The prison informant did receive the digital scales at his residence, at which time they were taken into evidence by the sheriff's department.