Benjamin “Benji” Cary Cranford, mayor of Thomson, Georgia, is accused of providing prisoners from the nearby Jefferson County Correctional Institute with the bottle of Seagram’s Extra Dry Gin.

He allegedly bought the gin on Monday 3 June and then drove to leave it in a ditch in the path of a work crew from the 190-bed prison, The Washington Post reports.

The mayor, a former paving contractor who was elected last year in the town of less than 7,000 people, was arrested after a city council meeting last week.

He has been charged with furnishing prohibited items to inmates and attempt to commit a felony.