DEA: Toledo-area man sent drug-soaked copy of JD Vance's 'Hillbilly Elegy' to Grafton prison inmate

The Drug Enforcement Administration has charged a Lucas County man in U.S. District Court with smuggling drug-soaked books — including Vice President JD Vance's memoir "Hillbilly Elegy" — to an inmate at Grafton Correctional Institution in Lorain County. Austin Siebert of Maumee is in federal custody, charged with knowing distribution of a Schedule 1 controlled substance, according to federal court records. Arrested Thursday by State Highway Patrol troopers while leaving his home, Siebert is due back in federal court on Wednesday, according to court records. In an affidavit filed in U.S. District Court, a DEA task force officer wrote that he met with a Grafton Correctional Institution investigator on Dec. 3 about a package containing suspected narcotics. According to the affidavit, a drug-sniffing prison K-9 had "alerted" on narcotics sprayed onto three items: A 2019 Graduate Record Examination, or GRE, handbook; a piece of paper; and a copy of Vice President and former Ohio Sen. JD Vance's 2016 memoir, "Hillbilly Elegy." All three were discolored, which the task force officer knew based on training and experience to suspect was from illegal drugs being sprayed on them so they could be smuggled into prison. A week earlier on Nov. 25, an inmate at the prison called an individual investigators say was Siebert, who told the inmate that he had driven "f--- in like 45 minutes last night to do that s---," meaning to mail the books to the inmate in prison. All prison calls are recorded, and inmates and others are warned that the calls are being recorded. Authorities suspect Siebert drove 45 minutes from his home to send the items to the inmate using a prison smuggling system called "The Amazon Technique." This happens when a person outside the prison orders books from legitimate stores to ship to inmates, who are only allowed to receive books from preauthorized vendors with receipts. Once the order is made and a receipt is printed, the order is canceled. The shipper buys copies of the books on the receipt, soaks some of the pages in drugs or sprays drugs on them, repackages the books with the proper receipt and a shipping label that makes it appear like the package was ordered on Amazon.com or from a store like Barnes & Noble and ships them to the inmate in prison. The affidavit details other alleged communications between Siebert and the inmate. On Nov. 27, Siebert allegedly sent the inmate an email telling him the package had been delivered, and the inmate confirmed he got it. On Dec. 3, the inmate told Siebert he got his copy of "Hillbilly Elegy" and their conversations led authorities to believe the drugs were sprayed on its last 10 pages. "F---ing romance novel," Siebert allegedly told the inmate on the phone. Investigators say Siebert also mentioned "the last lap," which meant the drugs were on the last pages of the book. The books were seized, tested and the pages found to contain drugs called 5-Fluoro-ADB and MDMB-4en-PINACA, both controlled substances known as synthetic cannabinoids. Two weeks later, Siebert told the inmate how to send him money on the CashApp application, according to the affidavit. A second book was seized Dec. 30, one Siebert allegedly had sent to a different inmate called "Corrupting the Innocent" and that also had pages soaked in 5-Fluoro-ADB. Investigators allege Siebert also was planning to send books soaked in drugs to a third inmate at Allen/Oakwood Correctional Institution in Lima, Allen County. Siebert had previously been incarcerated with that inmate at Richland Correctional Institution, according to court records. A search of Siebert's home turned up a loaded .380-caliber Bersa Thunder handgun, a paperback book soaked in suspected narcotics, bags of suspected drugs in both pill and powder form, a binding machine and mailing labels for Amazon packages, according to court records. Test results on the suspected drugs were pending as of last Friday, according to court records.