6,500 inmates behind jail smuggling

MORE than 6,500 inmates linked to organised crime gangs are behind the increase in prison smuggling, a study has found.

One in every 13 of England and Wales’ 85,500 inmates are involved in or connected to gangs sneaking drugs, weapons and mobile phones over the walls.

The figure, calculated by the National Crime Agency and the Prison Service, reveals for the first time the scale of a problem fuelling a surge in violence and disorder in jails.

Justice Secretary David Lidington used a speech yesterday to warn that smuggling gangs were attacking prisons to exploit the ‘captive market’.

Illegal operations to sneak contraband into jails had become ‘sophisticated and systematic’, employing the use of new technologies such as drones.

He said: ‘The fact is, our prisons are facing a clear and present danger from wellorganised individuals and criminal networks ... Over the past few years these gangs have exploited opportunities to target and profit from what is literally a captive market in prisons.

‘Smuggling has gone from crude and opportunistic – a friend or family member chancing their luck and throwing a bag of drugs over a prison wall – to sophisticated and systematic.’

The Ministry of Justice said there had been 28 convictions and combined sentences of more than 82 years for those using drones for smuggling jail contraband.