Hundreds of cell phones are confiscated
Evening Herald
DUBLIN, Ireland— New security measures at Mountjoy jail are pushing up the value of drugs to “barrel of oil” proportions.
So successful has been the clampdown on narcotics at the prison that the price of a broad range of contraband, which previously had been readily available, has gone through the roof.
The crackdown on illegal mobile phones and the increased use of sniffer dogs has forced a return to the crude delivery method — over the wall.
But the use of the new internal systems has freed up other officers to be even more vigilant for the traditional weekend ‘dropsies’ catapulted into the exercise yards from the local supermarket carpark and the canal walks.
Squabbles
One source revealed: “There have been internal squabbles over a tiny bag of cannabis. In the past they would not have bothered to pick up hash”.
The phones crackdown has made it more difficult for prisoners to make arrangements for ‘dropsies’.
Arranging to get a delivery at a specific time and place is much more difficult. The rigorous checks on visitors means that very little gets through and then only by chance if the dog is not in use.
The confiscation of phones continues at a much reducedrate with prisoners paying a premium to borrow them from those who have little to fear from increased sentences.
The phone issue is now a matter for the Director of Public Prosecutions as possession inside the jails is an indictable offence.
This issue cannot be dealt with in the lower court unless with his direction and a decision on a number of high-profile cases is currently pending.
Some 400 phones have been confiscated in the Mountjoy, St Patrick’s and women’s Dochas prisons. Gardai at Mountjoy collect them from the governor’s office in batches and they are then checked to establish the nature of the communications which have taken place.
The mobiles have been a source of vital intelligence for the gardai, linking convicted prisoners with their gang members on the outside.
The phone alert was signalled after inmate John Daly rang the Joe Duffy Liveline show to air his views.
He was shot dead weeks after his release.
Prison officers do not use their private phones inside and visiting gardai also leave their mobiles behind.
At present, a major criminal is believed to be still running a drug empire from behind bars with a parallel involvement in the bloody feud on Dublin’s southside.
He and his associates are the main targetsfor the continuing mobile crackdown.
Copyright 2008 Independent News and Media Ltd.