How prison inmates are making money and leaving millionaires

An unexpected drug is so popular in prisons it is making dealers - who are also inmates - millionaires by the time they leave jail.

Prisons are being turned into “money making machines” with some inmates leaving jail as “millionaires” by selling drugs to other prisoners.

A former inmate, who has spent most of his adult life in and out of jail, said some prisoners were making “thousands of dollars a week” by dealing the prescription opiate Suboxone - known as “subbies”.

“They’ve (authorities) got to turn a blind eye because if you cut off the supply - she’ll go south real bad,” he said.

He said Australia’s prisons were “bikie country now” with cocaine their drug of choice behind bars.

“All the jails are run by bikies, especially the Mongols,” the former inmate who spent time in Victoria’s infamous Pentridge prison said.

Watch the video above to see more in our Cocaine Inc. investigation.

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The former inmate said drug use was rife within Victoria’s notorious Pentridge prison.

“They rule the roost. Those jails are full of those bikies - that’s a lot of associates they’re making. They’re not stupid - they don’t go around terrorising everyone. They network.”

Cocaine was mainly used by bikies in prison “for their personal recreation”.

“It’s not something they really want to sell.”

His comments come as Australia’s involvement in the worldwide cocaine trade is investigated in the podcast Cocaine Inc.

The lure of huge profits that could be made in the Suboxone trade even saw pedophiles - who are normally targeted in prison - offered protection because they could source Suboxone, the former inmate said.

“The drugs generate the money and the money generates the club. The higher ups have big dollars to throw around and they haveinternational backup from all around the world – and it’s getting bigger.

Listen to the Cocaine Inc. podcast below:

“I’ll tell you something there was this bloke [who] had murdered a few people and was a big head [and] had a pedophile that was bringing it in. And two big well known heads in that jail, massive bikies, were protecting this pedophile as long as he bought the drugs in,” he said.

The arrangement appalled the former inmate.

“I was sickened by that.”

It ended when the pedophile wasn’t needed anymore and “got bashed”.

The former prisoner revealed one of the bikies left prison a rich man.

“Old mate is a multi-millionaire and one of the most evil men in Australia is out on the street,” the inmate said.

It had previously been reported prisoners were using online betting accounts to transfer money to dealers.

But the former inmate said the inmates themselves were also running things.

“I’ve seen it multiple times,” he said.

“They build these little empires and run the unit smooth – everyone’s looked after and eveyone’s happy. You’ve got 60 blokes in the unit, maybe 70, all toeing the line and doing the right thing,” he said.

The former inmate said Australians were “naive” to what is happening in prisons.

“People need to wake up and see what’s going on,” he said.

“It’s frightening, it really is,” he said, adding Australian prisons now closely resembled American ones.

He said there was “no money in violence” and the main aim was to make money.

“You get a few scraps but no one wants to disrupt the system,” he said.

Crime had always operated like a “business model” and jailhouse crime was no different.

“The criminal scene is a working machine. It’s always going to be that way and that’s what they have created,” he said.

Another former notorious inmate, Rodney “Goldie’’ Atkinson, who has spent more than half his life in jail on drugs, weapons and kidnapping charges, said the price of drugs skyrocketed in jail.

He said cocaine was used by those who were “rich” and usually as a special treat.

“People who are rich might bring it in for a bump for Christmas,” Atkinson said.

Rodney "Goldie" Atkinson, former stand over man and underworld figure.

Atkinson is the former member of the Brothers for Life gang who bashed granny killer Tony Halloun in a holding cage at Goulburn jail that left Halloun needing reconstructive surgery.

Atkinson said it was quite common for prisoners to get beaten up and their drugs taken when it was discovered they had a “drop” of drugs.

Sometimes $10,000 a month could be made in this way, he said.

He said often the way cocaine and other drugs are smuggled in were a turn-off.

“Especially when it’s been up someone’s a*** – can you imagine the smell of cocaine if it’s been up someone’s a***?” Atkinson said.

“It was about as far removed as when cocaine is used on the outside as you can get.

“It’s not like it’s New Year’s Eve and you’re with friends,” he said.

Atkinson claimed the use of ice was also rife in prisons.

“That’s the shit that causes a lot of problems,” he said.

Depending what jail it was, ice was consumed in the cells or in the yard.

“People don’t sleep, they hallucinate, they get scattery … And after a few days of no sleep, you can see what that does to the body,” he said.

In that state, prisoners began to imagine conversations “that have never happened”.

“That’s the thing – if they get a blade in their hand or a shiv, it’s pretty f***en hectic,” Atkinson said.

“If you get blokes on edge, paranoid schizophrenics, and at their sizes – they have got arms like tree trunks. It’s f***en dangerous, it takes ten blokes to hold them down,” he said.

“You’ve got a guy who has been in there for 10 years and been training everyday Then all of a sudden gets on that shit.”

Originally published as How prison inmates are making money and leaving millionaires