Prisoner with meth ‘magician’

A prisoner who expelled a candy tube full of methamphetamine from his rear end during a stripsearch must have been a ‘‘magician’’ to get the drugs inside, the alleged smuggler says.

Rachel Elizabeth Howarth is on trial in the Palmerston North District Court, charged with supplying Errol Danklof methamphetamine while visiting him at Manawatu¯ Prison on July 9, 2016.

There is no argument Danklof was found with methamphetamine on that day after Howarth visited.

He was strip-searched after the visit – a usual practice – and the two prison guards said an M&MS tube was ‘‘fired’’ or ‘‘flew’’ from his backside when he was made to do a deep squat.

Later analysis found 14 grams of methamphetamine inside, and Danklof was convicted of possessing the drugs.

The Crown says Howarth used a quick toilet stop during the visit to remove the tube from where she had hidden them on her person, then passed them to Danklof.

Danklof then managed to get the tube down the back of his prison-issue overalls and either hold the tube between his buttock cheeks or insert it in his anus in an attempt to smuggle it in.

Detective Daniel Mcinnes tried to interview Danklof afterwards, telling him there was 18g of methamphetamine in there, but the inmate refused to make a statement.

Howarth was arrested two weeks later, and interviewed by Mcinnes.

She said she had visited the prison ‘‘hundreds’’ of times, and the one on July 9 was no different to any other.

‘‘They are all the same. You go there, you sit for an hour.’’

She knew people could not take items into the visiting rooms.

She and Danklof were ‘‘good friends’’ – something Mcinnes doubted after seeing them on prison CCTV kissing and cuddling.

He told her he had seen her take an item, which had to be the tube full of drugs, from her pocket and put it in Danklof’s lap.

‘‘He has been searched prior to coming in [for the visit],’’ Mcinnes said. ‘‘At the end of the visit he is searched and he has been found with this item on him.

‘‘You are the only person he has had any contact with.’’

Howarth denied ever having contact with the tube, saying her DNA would not be found on it.

‘‘[Danklof] must be a f ...... magician then.’’

A phone call between Danklof and Howarth after the drugs were discovered was played in court.

The pair can be heard talking about being ripped off by someone. Various numbers came up, with Howarth saying ‘‘I was told only 18’’.

Danklof replied: ‘‘That’s what I was told from the cops, 18.4. Should have been 21. He said there was 21 in there.

‘‘You shouldn’t have brought it in, bro, and I wouldn’t take it off ya.’’

The jury was also read a statement from Corrections employee Anthony Coyle, in which he described how jailhouse currency works. While a packet of cigarettes cost $35 outside prison, it would go for as much as $350 inside. The same inflation applied to methamphetamine.

While 14g of the drug would have a street value of between $8400 and $14,000 outside prison, depending on how it was sold, conservative estimates put it as being worth at least $25,000 in prison, Coyle said.

Inmates would pay for contraband in various ways, including depositing money in jailhouse trust accounts, getting people outside prison to exchange money, or by doing favours inside prison on behalf of an inmate or gang.