Ex-Prisoners Getting Arrested Deliberately To Smuggle Spice Into Jails
11 December 2018, 17:52
An LBC investigation has found ex-prisoners are purposely getting sent back to jail so they can smuggle in the drug Spice.
One dealer from Sheffield told our reporter Charlotte Lynch that he's seen people deliberately breaking their parole terms in order to get put back in prison
He deals the drug and he's spent time behind bars. He's told us it's common to see people committing crimes or breaking parole so they can make a profit by smuggling the drug back in.
He said: "People have said 'I'm only in for 14 days ... and I'm going to go out, get filled up and come back in'. Get filled up by meaning by get as much drug as possible and come back in."
LBC understands that some inmates are making £800 a week selling the drug.
The dealer added: "Prison officers just turned a blind eye on to it. I mean the amount of times that my cell door got opened, my prison buddy was off his head on Spice. All they do was shut the door. There's no punishment. There's no interrogation where are you getting these drugs from?"
Another man told us he was paid £500 to serve a two week sentence: "I got a phone call and he asked me if I could do it. So I did it... I breached my licence so I could take it back in".
And he says he'd do it again.
Craig Robson is from the Prison Officers Association, he's told us they can't keep on top of it: "We have packages coming over the wall. We also have prisoners who come in with Kinder Eggs, which is secreted in their body. You can't buy Kinder Eggs in prison, but it's strange how you find a Kinder Egg in the rubbish."
"Some big sentences need to be given out with this. Because the people who are coming back for a month at a time, who are happy to come back for a month at a time, might think long and hard if they got five years."
The Government's promised to spend £14 million on measures to stop gangs selling drugs in prison.
A statement from the Department of Justice said: "We're tackling the criminal gangs that smuggle drugs into prisons by investing and additional £14million each year to cut off their ability to do business."
