EDGEFIELD COUNTY, S.C. () – A woman from Oregon has been sentenced to a decade behind bars after a jury found her guilty of smuggling drugs into the Edgefield prison.
Tracy Alic Rel, aged 61 and hailing from Portland, was convicted by an Edgefield County jury on February 26, 2026, for trafficking methamphetamine. Her sentencing took place on July 28, 2026.
According to the Edgefield County Sheriff’s Office, which shared details via Facebook, the trial’s evidence revealed Rel’s operation of methamphetamine trafficking from Oregon to the Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) Edgefield.
Investigations showed that Rel cleverly concealed the drugs within empty pill capsules and hid these within vitamin bottles. Her journey took her from Oregon to Atlanta before she proceeded to Edgefield.
Upon arriving in Edgefield, she extracted the methamphetamine from the capsules, repackaged it into small rubber balloons, and managed to smuggle these into the prison during her weekend visits.
Rel discreetly passed the balloons directly to an inmate during those visits, officials said.
The scheme was discovered during a weekend visit in March 2025, when prison security personnel saw her Rel behaving suspiciously and notified the Sheriff’s Office.
Investigators later located Rel at a hotel near the prison. During the investigation, Deputies recovered methamphetamine, empty pill capsules, and blue rubber balloons consistent with the contraband that was found inside the prison.
During the trial, an investigator testified about the dangers posed by methamphetamine and other contraband inside correctional institutions. Prosecutors argued that Rel’s actions threatened not only the security of FCI Edgefield but also the safety of everyone who lives and works in and around the institution.
She is currently housed at the Edgefield County Detention Center and will be transported to the South Carolina Department of Corrections to begin serving her sentence.