Five people have been charged in connection to an alleged plot to smuggle fentanyl into the Riverhead jail.

Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said the defendants planned to smuggle the dangerous drug via papers disguised as legal documents, which were going to be given to an unsuspecting attorney.

Authorities said the plan was thwarted, thanks to the monitoring of inmate communications.

The papers were allegedly sprayed with a liquid containing fentanyl. “Our intelligence informs us that these papers are torn up, sold to inmates, the inmates then put them in their mouth and once their saliva wets the paper, it activates the fentanyl into their system,” Tierney said.

Authorities said the papers can be sold for $6,000 per page in the jail. Suffolk County Sheriff Errol D. Toulon Jr. said fentanyl is 20 times more valuable inside the jail than on the street.