Authorities probe drug-link in four of the six recent inmate deaths at Bridgend’s Parc Prison

THE prison ombudsman is investigating 20 deaths at Parc since January 2022, including the six since February 27 this year.

With regard to the six deaths in recent weeks, on Friday authorities said they were looking into a potential drug-link in four of the cases, while the remaining two have been described as “non-suspicious” – but it has not yet been made public which of the deaths belong in which category.

In all four deaths in which the presence of a drug or drugs has been found, police say they have identified the super-strength street opioids called nitazenes.

Nitazenes can be up to 300 times stronger than heroin.

In December, several of them were classified as Class A drugs.

They were first detected in the UK from white powder found in the back of a Wakefield taxi in 2021 and, according to Sky News, they have since been found in heroin, cannabis, and most commonly in black market pills sold as the antianxiety drug diazepam.

Originally developed as a painkiller, nitazenes have never been approved for use as a medicine in the UK.

They have been linked to nine deaths in Scotland in the past six months.

Additionally, in two of the four Parc Prison deaths with a potential drug-link, the presence of “spice” was identified.

Spice, sometimes called the “zombie drug” because it can leave users contorted in unnatural positions for hours, is a synthetic cannabinoid – a lab-created Class B substance designed to mimic cannabis.

On Friday, it emerged that a probation officer is under investigation for allegedly smuggling spice into Parc.

G4S, the private security firm that runs the jail, says the officer under investigation is from the probation service and not employed by the prison itself.

South Wales Police says there have been no arrests in connection with the deaths.