Officials of the Bureau of Prisons are investigating how and with what intention more than 600 grams of a potent poison, that could be arsenic or cyanide, was entered to the Liberty Prison. 

The discovery was prompted by an inmate who told the parliamentary commissioner, Alvaro Garcé, about the existence of a hidden package that contained a potent poison. After ensuring his integrity, Garcé made the deputy director of Prisons, Joseph Colman, aware of the situation. The search for the poison by the authorities gave result and now both, inmates and guard personnel, are being questioned to establish how this powerful poison, that could have caused mass deaths if mixed with food, entered the Prision.

The investigation led by Prision Intelligence and Justice of San Jose also aims to establish if the poison was to be used against prisoners or againts guards. Garcé could not specify what type of poison is it. However, the commissioner knew the product was being studied in a laboratory.

(www.elpaís.com.uy and www.espectador.com, 21 January 2010)