12 February
Staff at Christchurch Men’s Prison have once again thwarted attempts to smuggle cannabis into the prison inside a tennis ball.
“On Tuesday Corrections Officers were conducting a routine security patrol when they spotted an object lodged in the guttering of a unit,” says Prison Manager John Roper.
“The object was retrieved and it turned out to be a tennis ball wrapped up in black tape. Packed inside was 20g of cannabis leaf.”
Mr Roper says that stuffing a tennis ball full of contraband and throwing it into the prison appears to be the smuggling method of choice recently, though not a successful one.
“Towards the end of last year there were two other failed attempts to sneak drugs into the prison inside a tennis ball; similar efforts have also been prevented at other prisons around the country.
“The detection of this attempt to introduce drugs into the prison is another example of the vigilance of our staff in reducing the drug availability for prisoners. I am very proud of their ongoing efforts ensuring contraband does not enter the prison.
“While there were grumblings of displeasure from within the unit when the ball was recovered, the intended recipient wasn’t able to be identified.”
The ball and contents have been passed onto Police, along with all other available information to help them with their enquiries says Mr Roper. No charges have yet been made.
“We encourage anyone being pressured to help prisoners get contraband items to let us know by ringing 0800 JAIL SAFE (5245 7233).
“We have a number of initiatives in place to prevent drugs and other contraband entering the prison including visitor searches, vehicle checkpoints, and the use of drug detector dogs. The chance that drug smuggling attempts will be intercepted by our staff means it just isn’t worth trying.”
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