Drugs hidden in fake legal letters after prison visitor ban
Fake letters from lawyers are being used to smuggle drugs into prisons after desperate inmates were left dry by the coronavirus visitor ban.
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Fake legal letters are being used by prisoners to try to smuggle large quantities of the drug suboxone into the state’s prisons while visits are banned under COVID-19 restrictions.
Over the past month prison officers have detected 30 shipments – in both domestic mail and fake legal correspondence – compared with none in the previous month.
The most significant find was more than 200 strips of suboxone hidden within the pages of a fake legal letter. Half of the recent seizures have been contained in fake legal letters.
The drugs have been detected by prison sniffer dogs which have been trained to detect drugs including suboxone, a controlled prescription drug which is used to treat opioid addiction and gives its user a mild high.
In a typical scenario, mail is laid out on the floor and a handler runs the sniffer dog over it and the dog stops once it detects any substance. Legal letters attract privilege and are only opened if a letter is identified during a search.
The suboxone seizures have been made at most of the state’s prisons.
Prisoners have resorted to using mail to smuggle drugs because all prison visits have been suspended during the COVID-19 crisis. Prisoners can have online visits using Zoom.
Correctional Services Minister Corey Wingard, pictured, said dealing with the increase in the smuggling of contraband during the COVID-19 crisis had been a major issue.
“With visits being conducted virtually, prisoners have been resorting to other means, including good old-fashioned snail mail, to attempt to smuggle drugs into prisons,’’ he said.
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“What would normally be picked up during a search of a person ahead of a visit is now being picked up in the mail.
“Our officers have done an outstanding job in detecting and seizing these drugs and will continue to work closely with SAPOL to stamp out the flow of drugs into our prisons.
“This isn’t about prisoners wanting to detox, this is about using any means possible to get a buzz. It’s been an unintended benefit of COVID-19 … that our prisoners have been forced to detox.”
In State Parliament on Wednesday the Government introduced legislation to crack down on those attempting to smuggle drugs into prisons.
New measures include banning drones within 100m of a prison, buffer zones around prisons in which those caught with drugs get higher penalties and jail sentences of up to 10 years for anyone caught trying to smuggle drugs into a prison.