Paralegal Busted for Smuggling Darknet Drugs into North Carolina Prisons

A North Carolina paralegal is facing trafficking and possession charges after authorities say she used her legal credentials to push darknet-sourced drugs into multiple state prisons via a channel that’s usually trusted and rarely scanned: legal mail.

Katelin Rey, who worked as a paralegal for nearly a decade and handled at least nine homicide cases, was arrested after investigators linked her to a darknet drug pipeline targeting Central Prison in Raleigh, Tabor Correctional, and Scotland Correctional.

A rat who is also a defendant told investigators Rey exploited her legal access to move narcotics directly to inmates, using her role to bypass scrutiny. A newly unsealed search warrant confirms: the legal mail system in prisons, presumed secure and protected, is a prime vector for contraband.

Prison staff reportedly intercepted fentanyl-laced mail sprayed, not embedded sent under the cover of legal correspondence. Because legal mail isn't scanned like general population mail, and must be opened in front of the inmate (without reading contents), it remains one of the few blind spots in the prison mail system.

Raleigh PD says Rey was sourcing her supply from the dark web likely using privacy tools and crypto to maintain anonymity until she wasn’t. Investigators recovered cocaine, heroin, MDMA, and liquid fentanyl at her residence.

“If you wanted to move drugs behind bars without getting flagged, legal mail is the move,” defense attorney Daniel Meier told local media. “It’s the one channel they don’t scrutinize deeply, and they know it.”

When approached by WRAL at her front door, Rey reportedly said: “I don’t want this out there. There’s a lot that’s not being said. It’s so much more complicated.”

No doubt. But the message is clear: legal system insiders abusing trusted roles to move darknet product isn’t new it’s just rarely exposed.

Rey is currently out on a $250,000 bond. Her attorney hasn’t returned media requests.