Prison officer smuggled in drug ‘sausages’
A Corrections officer who smuggled drugs into prison went to pick-ups at a petrol station in his uniform “so he could be identified”.
A Black Power prospect handed over the goods and paid the officer’s bribe.
The Waikato Times can reveal details of the officer’s offending after he entered guilty pleas to drugs and corruption charges.
Legal suppressions mean the man, and two others involved, cannot currently be named.
The deals were brokered by a senior Black Power inmate using “guarded language over monitored calls” at the Waikato prison where the officer worked, according to the police summary of facts.
The Black Power member approached the officer about May 2021, and they agreed - after “some effort” - he’d bring in contraband in exchange for cash.
“This occurred on three separate occasions in May, June and July 2021.”
The Black Power member was also in “frequent contact with his associates surrounding the supply of controlled substances outside of the prison, as well as directing his associates to take assets from others as payments of debts owed to him”.
The officer agreed to take $1000 in cash for the first exchange and got the prospect’s phone number, while the Black Power member and others made phone calls about the plans. The prospect was warned it took “some effort” to convince the officer, “indicating that some care needed to be taken”.
The Black Power member instructed the prospect to make up a consignment of cannabis, synthetic cannabis and tobacco.
He wanted it packaged into two “sausages”, the summary said, “wrapped with gladwrap before being taped over and limited in size to a middle finger”. He also said the officer was to be paid $1000 cash.
“They agreed to meet at a Mobil service station. . . [the officer] advised that he would be wearing his Department of Corrections uniform and described his vehicle so he could be identified.”
The officer took the money, and the contraband, later providing it to the Black Power member.
At a second service station meeting, the officer received $1200 for bringing methamphetamine into the prison, and a third consignment was also arranged.
But the officer came unstuck delivering that, arriving to find “the Department of
Corrections were operating a random prison entry checkpoint at the staff carpark”.
The officer said he had cannabis “for personal use”. A later vehicle search found a container with three “sausages”, containing 1.75 grams of methamphetamine, 21.1 grams of cannabis, 15.8 grams of synthetic cannabis and 163.5 grams of tobacco.
The officer was set to stand trial in February until a last-minute change of pleas, and is due to be sentenced in May.