Sheriff blasts prisons awash with heroin from drug smugglers

Inmate found with stash valued at £3,000 in HMP Perth

Scotland’s prisons remain “awash” with heroin, preventing many prisoners from recovering from the addictions that have brought them to custody, a sheriff has warned.

Sheriff Lindsay Foulis told Perth Sheriff Court there appeared no end to the problem of drug smuggling as he heard of the “huge” stash found on one serving prisoner.

Ziggy Christie was found with heroin valued at £3,000 as he served a sentence at HMP Perth, with the drugs discovered following a search.

That value was inflated by the prison setting, but the sheriff said that on the street the quantity of drugs was still enough to make up around 60 tenner-bag deals.

“It is an enormous amount of drugs to have in prison,” he told Christie.

“You must have been taking it morning, noon and night with your cornflakes.

“Our prisons are apparently awash with heroin.”

Christie admitted being possession of a class A drug at HMP Perth on August 8 2016 and told the court he had struggled with addiction for many years.

He said he had found it difficult to avoid drugs and drug addicts, both within the prison setting and during those periods of time spent at liberty.

The prisoner asked for support to prevent him from falling back into bad habits following his release from a sentence imposed last year.

Sheriff Foulis, however, said further time in custody was inevitable and added four months to the end of Christie’s current sentence.

He had been due for release on March 26.

In 2016, the same sheriff said a plague of drug smuggling was having a “corrosive” effect on Scotland’s prisons and must be stamped out.

That warning came after drugs valued at nearly £100,000 were seized in a matter of months as all manner of means were used to sneak illicit substances into Perth Prison.

In January, The Courier published figures revealing the number of drug discoveries at the prison had rocketed from 136 in 2014 to 354 in 2016.

Partial figures for 2017 revealed an additional 141 drug seizures, in part as a result of “robust” measures by prison authorities.

In many cases, drugs are intercepted before they can enter the prison setting, being spotted either in the yard – where drones have been used to drop parcels of illicit substances – or in visitor areas.

Nonetheless, the number of cases appearing at Perth Sheriff Court illustrates many substances do still make their way into the hands of inmates before they can be detected.

As the figures were revealed, an SPS spokeswoman claimed everything possible was done to prevent such incidents arising.

“A comprehensive range of robust security measures are in place to prevent the introduction of contraband into our prisons,” she said.

“Significant investment continues to be made in the development of new technology and in staff training to detect, deter and reduce the availability and supply of illegal drugs.”

Ziggy Christie is led from court.