A former prison officer has lifted the lid on the extreme ways inmates smuggle drugs into high security jails.
Lee Davies was a guard at Lancaster Farms young offenders institution, but in 2010 he was caught smuggling cocaine and mobiles into inmates and was sentenced to 12 years in prison.
The ex-officer said he was sucked in by the opportunity for quick money while earning an average salary of £22,850.
But now the rehabilitated offender, who served four years of his sentence, works to spread awareness and offers support to guards to avoid the temptation, insisting that it is ‘absolutely not worth it’.
Speaking to new YouTube channel DEEP for their explainer series DEEP X, he detailed the five key methods criminals might use to smuggle illegal goods into the prison, including in condoms, currency and tennis balls.
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Lee Davies was a guard at Lancaster Farms young offenders institution before he was jailed for 12 years in 2010 for smuggling cocaine and mobiles in to inmates
Aerial photograph of HM Lancaster Farms Prison. He would pocket £400 each time and as officer salaries start at around £22,850 he thought it was an easy way to earn extra money
In the interview with Deep X he detailed the five methods criminals would use to smuggle contraband into the prison
Tennis Ball
Davies said how tennis balls were a simple way to get product into the prison. Criminals cut them open and stuff them with drugs, steroids, or sim cards before chucking them over the ‘not that high’ prison walls.
Alternatively they whack the balls over the walls using a tennis rackets to help ‘transport it hundreds of metres’, making it easier for the co-conspirators to go undetected.
However, Mr Davies added that once it is pinged into the exercise yard, anyone who sees it ‘will be going for it’, meaning that there is a much higher risk of getting caught by a guard or having to fight off another inmate who saw it fly over the wall.
He believed the reason people use this method is because the financial gain is still significant, even if you lose a few tennis balls of contraband in the process.
‘It’s a numbers game and things in prison are worth a hell of a lot more. So if we filled it [the tennis ball] with cannabis, [there] is not a great deal [that can fit in the ball] but in prison it can sell for ten times more.’
These can be stuffed with drugs, steroids, or sim cards and thrown into the prison, as ‘prison walls are not that high’
Prison Letters
All incoming post to a prison is strictly checked, so to put drugs directly into an envelope would likely lead to it being discovered, Mr Davies said.
However, smugglers have tried to get around this by instead dousing letters in ‘spice or other drugs’, which can then be heated up in cells by prisoners, for use.
He continued that although all checks are thorough, it can be difficult to detect, especially with a naked eye.
‘If you douse this in drugs and send five letter, it just take ones of them to get through. We are not that high security especially in the local prisons and Cat d or Cat C [low security prisons], so some will get through,’ he told Deep X.
However the latest trick by those helping smuggle drugs into jail is to douse letters in ‘spice or other drugs’, which are then heated up in cells by prisoners for use
Drones
Drones are a growing problem for prisons, due to technological advancements drones are now able to fly over the fences and hover directly outside a felons cell window.
Mr Davies said: ‘They can hover outside someone’s window with precision. All you need is an attachment and a bag of drugs and because they have cameras on them you can pinpoint where it is being delivered.
‘It is basically like Amazon times ten.’
Punishments for these crimes would be similar to outside charges. Prisoners would be segregated within the jail if caught.
Before being sent to the courts to be officially handled, with a high risk of extra time being added onto their sentence.
Drones have become an increased risk for prison guards, due to technological advancements drones are now able to fly over the fences and hover directly outside a felons window
Currency
Even though transactions are done outside prison walls, physical money can still be used to transport drugs into the prison as visitors can carrying cash on them into the facility.
‘Cash will always be king even in jail,’ Mr Davies said, ‘It can [hidden] in a bra. It can be wrapped and folded.
‘And males can secrete it in their behind and also in their foreskin.’
He continued that the reason it is such an effective smuggling method is because officers need to get special powers to ‘cavity search’ someone.
‘When you are having a strip search you have to have special dispensation to cavity search someone. So it is a safe bet that if you can hide something within there, it is not going to get found.’
He added: ‘People will go to any extremes in there to get what they want and hide things from the officers.’
Even though transactions are done outside prison walls, physical money can still be used to transport drugs into the prison as visitors are allowed to enter with money
Condoms
Mr Davies said that condoms are probably the most common way of trying to get contraband into a prison because of their durability.
‘They can be filled with drugs. They can be swallowed, held in the throat, the lengths people will go to, blows my mind,’ Mr Davies said.
Depending on the type of drugs, someone could be sneaking in £4000 – £5000 worth of product in the jail in one condom, so it is highly profitable.
Adding: ‘[They] can also be secreted in a vagina or an anus and then retrieved in the toilet. The lubrication means it can just slide in anywhere.’
He continued that this type of smuggling was not easy and usually people would be sent in for a ‘fake visit’ with an inmate, really with the intention of dropping off contraband.
‘The people doing this will be well seasoned pros, they might not even be going in to see a visitor.’
Depending on the type of drugs, someone could be sneaking in £4000 – £5000 in one condom
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