GALVESTON, TX (KTRK) -- Two handguns were found in a work area inside the Galveston County jail, Sheriff Henry Trochesset told ABC-13 today.
The discovery of the weapons came after a tip to the Sheriff's Office and the area the guns were found was immediately put on a days-long lockdown, officials said.
Trochesset is looking at his own staff in his investigation into how the guns wound up hidden in a restricted work area for inmates.
"If a deputy was doing their job, we wouldn't be here (talking) today," Trochesset said.
The guns were both seized years ago during drug arrests and were stored in a secure evidence vault until July 29. At that point they were shipped to a work area where trustees with welding skills were instructed to destroy them under deputy supervision, a long-time practice at the Sheriff's Office.
Records show the guns were destroyed. Instead of destroying them, however, someone was able to hide them on top of a paint booth in the workshop.
Neither of the guns, found August 19, were loaded and Trochesset pointed out that one of the guns was so rusted that it would be unable to fire.
The skilled inmate labor "was searched along with their housing areas," officials said. No other weapons were found and no guns were found in the actual jail where inmates are housed.
In the wake of the discovery, Trochesset said that inmates will no longer be cutting up guns and he has since increased security procedures.
Trochesset was a 28-year veteran of the sheriff s office before his 2012 election to the post.