A four hour and a half search of the Mazaruni Prison on Monday has unearthed several contraband items. These include seven cellular phones inclusive of two ‘smart’ ones, a cutlass, improvised weapons, cigarette lighters, ear-piece, phone battery and charger.
The raid was reportedly conducted jointly by ranks of the Police Force and the Prison Service. Only recently, 19 cellular phones; five phone chargers; one flash drive; fifteen cigarette lighters; two packs of cigarettes; five pairs of scissors; seven improvised weapons, and 774 grams of cannabis were found during a raid at the Camp Street Penitentiary.
The operation came less than a month after a major find at the Lusignan Prison.
During that raid, razor blades, 17 phone chargers, 24 lighters, a quantity of wires, 8 metal spoons, 2 pairs of scissors, 1 plastic knife, 2 nail clips, a quantity of Ziplock bags, 6 bottles of pepper sauce, 1 pack of cards, 3 bottles of medicine, 4 bottles of oil with suspected cannabis seeds, 1 memory card, 3 mirrors and 1 wrist watch were discovered.
The smuggling of contraband items into prisons remains a perennial problem within the system. Authorities have been working assiduously to curb the practice, and these efforts have resulted in several prison officers being caught facilitating the illegal trade, which is said to be a “big business”.
In fact, back in July, Director of Prisons, Gladwin Samuels, had disclosed during a press conference that several prison officers had been relieved of their duties after they were found to be working in collusion with each other in order to facilitate the movement of suspected contraband into the various correctional facilities.
