€6,000 of heroin found sown into jeans left for prison inmate

By Gráinne Ní Aodha, Press Association

Around €6,000 of heroin has been seized after being found sewn into jeans that had been left for a prisoner at Wheatfield Prison.

The Irish Prison Service said it had invested in new technologies and beefed-up security measures to reduce contraband entering jails.

It said phones, drugs and other items were seized this week at Wheatfield due to enhanced security.

Detection systems aided the recovery of the heroin sewn into the seam of a pair of jeans left at Wheatfield, while screening processes found a “substantial” quantity of drugs in a care package posted to a prisoner.

The IPS also said this week that members of the Prison Service Escort Corp working on escort duty recovered “yet another supply of drugs hidden in a public toilet of a courthouse”.

The service said prison staff had increased the use of random and intelligence-led cell searches on a daily basis and its canine unit are carrying out searches around the prisons, with a greater focus on incoming deliveries.

The IPS said it was working with An Garda Siochana on seizures, arrests and disruption to organised crime.