By Brenda Starkey
Chronicle correspondent

     REPUBLIC - Cocaine discovered in a break room at the Ferry County Jail probably was brought in by construction workers.
     "On Feb. 10, the Ferry County Jail contacted the Curlew Border Patrol Station and requested canine assistance to conduct a routine search of the facility for contraband and narcotics," a U.S. Border Patrol spokesman said.
     "While preparing the Border Patrol canine for the search, the canine alerted to the presence of narcotics in a general purpose room in an open area," a Border Patrol announcement said. "A white powdery substance was tested. The test proved positive for cocaine."
     The matter was turned over to jail administrators, the spokesman said.
     The substance was field tested, but no other agency was called upon to do an internal investigation, Sheriff Pete Warner said.
     He said he called for drug urinalysis testing of all jail, dispatch and sheriff's office personnel.
     Republic police officers voluntarily took the test, too, he said.
     Although the union said the testing was warranted, one dispatcher refused, saying it infringed upon his rights.
     All others were tested drug-free, Warner said.
     The unidentified employee who refused the test never goes into that room, the sheriff said. That employee was reprimanded.
     The substance on which the dog alerted was a white powder on top of a filing cabinet. There were tools on top of it. It resembled powder that might have resulted from a hole being drilled into drywall, Warner said.
     Warner said there were construction projects ongoing in the jail at the time and he suspected workers may have brought the substance into the jail.
     The only inmates who would have had access to the break room were women who do some cleaning, but they would have been escorted at all times, Warner said.
     Border Patrol dogs are routinely requested to search for contraband, Border Patrol spokeswoman Danielle L. Suarez said.
     "All Border Patrol canines are certified in the detection of narcotics and concealed humans utilizing the hunt and air scent drives to locate mainly stationary people or narcotics," she said.