I’m an ex-prison officer here are the five key ways inmates smuggle drugs into prison… but how they sneak in cash is next level

A former prison guard has blown the lid on the extreme ways inmates smuggle drugs into maximum security prisons.

Lee Davies was a guard at Lancaster Farms Youth Offenders Institution, but in 2010 he was caught smuggling cocaine and mobile phones to prisoners and was sentenced to 12 years in prison.

The ex-officer said he was sucked in by the opportunity to make a quick buck, earning an average salary of £22,850.

But now the rehabilitated offender, who has served four years of his sentence, is working to raise awareness and offer support to guards to avoid the temptation, insisting it is ‘absolutely not worth it’.

Speaking to new YouTube channel DEEP for their explainer series DEEP X, he outlined the five main methods criminals might use to smuggle illegal goods into prisons, including condoms, currency and tennis balls.

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Tennis ball

Davies said tennis balls were an easy way to get products into prisons, with criminals cutting them open and loading them with drugs, steroids or SIM cards before throwing them over the “not so high” prison walls.

Another option is for them to hit the balls over the walls with a tennis racket so that they can be “transported hundreds of yards.” This makes it easier for the conspirators to remain unnoticed.

However, Mr Davies added that once the item ends up in the training ground, anyone who sees it will ‘go for it’. This means that there is a much greater chance that a guard will catch it or that a prisoner who sees the object flying over the wall will have to defend himself.

He believed that people use this method because the financial benefit is still significant, even if you lose a few tennis balls in contraband in the process.

‘It’s a matter of numbers and things in prison are worth a lot more. So if we were to fill it [the tennis ball] with cannabis, [there] is not much [that can fit in the ball] but in prison it can fetch ten times as much.’

Prison letters

All incoming mail into a prison is tightly controlled, so putting drugs directly into an envelope would likely lead to detection, Davies said.

However, smugglers have tried to get around this by dousing letters with ‘spice or other drugs’. These drugs can then be heated by prisoners in their cells for use.

He continued that while all checks are thorough, it can be difficult to detect, especially with the naked eye.

‘If you douse this with drugs and send five letters, it only takes one to get through. We don’t have that high security, especially in the local prisons and Cat d or Cat C. [low security prisons]so that some will get through,” he told Deep X.

Drones

Drones are a growing problem for prisons. Thanks to advances in technology, drones can now fly over fences and hover right outside the window of a criminal’s cell.

Mr. Davies said: ‘They can hover outside someone’s window with precision. All you need is confirmation and a bag of drugs and because they have cameras you can see exactly where it is being delivered.

“It’s basically like Amazon, but ten times over.”

The penalties for these crimes would be comparable to those imposed outside. Prisoners would be separated within the prison if caught.

Before they are sent to court to be officially processed, there is a high risk of extra time being added to their sentence.

Currency

Although transactions take place outside prison walls, physical money can still be used to transport drugs into the prison as visitors can bring cash into the prison.

“Cash will always be king, even in prison,” Mr Davies said. “That can [hidden] in a bra. It can be wrapped and folded.

‘And males can secrete it in their buttocks and also in their foreskin.’

He went on to say that the reason it is such an effective smuggling method is that officers need special powers to ‘search’ someone.

“If you’re going to do a strip search, you have to have special permission to search someone. So it’s a safe bet that if you can hide something in there, it’s not going to be found.”

He added: “People there will go to extreme lengths to get what they want and keep things from the officers.”

Condoms

Mr Davies said condoms were probably the most common way of getting contraband into a prison because of their durability.

‘They could be full of drugs. They can be swallowed, held in the throat, the lengths people go to, it baffles me,” said Mr. Davies.

Depending on the type of drug, someone can smuggle £4,000 – £5,000 worth of product into prison with one condom, so it’s very profitable.

Add: ‘[They] can also be excreted in the vagina or anus and then found in the toilet. The lubrication allows it to slide in anywhere.’

He went on to say that this type of smuggling is not easy and that people are usually sent on a ‘fake visit’ to a prisoner, with the real intention of delivering contraband.

‘The people who do this are seasoned professionals. They may not even visit a visitor.”