There's a thriving black market operating in Britain's prisons
with a record number of contraband being smuggled in every day.
Controlled drug, firearm, offensive weapon, alcohol,
mobile telephone, we've got tobacco, money, computer equipment,
maximum penalty two years' imprisonment.
But I know these things are getting in there, I know they are.
I want to know who's doing it, why they're doing it and
ultimately, more importantly, how they're doing it.
So I'm about to go and meet with a drug dealer.
A regular drug dealer, but apparently he knows all too well
and is the source of drugs that are getting into prisons,
so I'm going to go and meet with him and find out how his drugs,
street drugs, are getting into prison.
What do you do that for?
So how much do you reckon's there?
Wow, all that is half ounce?
Why is that?
Cool.
Down the pants!
'I head out with the dealer as he waits for a call from his buyer.'
Do you ever feel, like, responsible for it?
Do you feel like you're a source of drugs that are getting into prison?
Is there a big market in prison for drugs?
'It's impossible to estimate the drugs market inside jails.
'Figures have suggested it to be worth more than £60 million.'
PHONE RINGS
'It's time for the dealer to make the drop-off
'to the next link in the chain.'
What about car accidents?
I think he's going at the speed limit.
Are you driving with your knees?
'I'm properly worried.
'If we get stopped by police, we'd get more than just a speeding fine.'
We suddenly pull over.
The drugs get handed through the window of a car.
I managed to persuade the guy picking up, a networker,
to let me come back and see him in a couple of days.
I'm beginning to understand
how the chain of smuggling works.
A networker takes the order from
inmates and sources the drugs on the outside
before preparing the goods to go back in.
What I want to know is how their order gets made from
behind bars and how that market
runs on the inside.
The contact of a contact has finally come through for me.
He's hooking me up with a guy who apparently
has done some time and, even more interestingly,
has actually moved contraband into the prison,
so, hopefully, I'll get some more insight straight from the horse's mouth.
And what's you situation at the moment?
Like, are you a free guy at the moment?
I'm trying to find out about how contraband gets inside prison.
What are the main things people are wanting to get on the inside?
Knives?
And did you ever see any heroin, or...
What does mobile phones, drugs, contraband do in that environment?
'It's clear contraband is driving violence between inmates.
'Serious assaults in UK prisons have reached a ten-year high.'
Then if I think you're going to come rob me, I'm going to want
a knife, so I'm going to get a knife brought in.
And then you've got the guy who's got the gun.
Doesn't it just keep raising? Where does it stop?
Tell me a little bit about the methods you use to get things in.
Sorry, bringing what in?
Sorry, elevated yourself to prison officers?
How many prison officers do you think you've been through?
What did you get them to bring in for you?
And then what about with the drones?
But how does the drone make sure it gets to the right person?
Do some inmates have a network of people on the outside who
facilitate the bringing the drugs in?
'This network couldn't operate without mobile phones.
'He offers to show me by calling one of his mates
'he says is on the inside.'
How did you get your mobile phone?
What kind of thing do you use your phone for?
Yeah, so what kind of conversations are you having?
Wow.
Are you making... Making money while you're inside?
Do you see a lot of drugs and phones in there?
PHONE BEEPS
I can't believe that you, just like that, you can ring someone who's
serving a ten-year stretch.
How could the prison system stop contraband getting in?
I think I'm most surprised at, one,
his brutal honesty, but the level of the problem. I had no idea.
I knew stuff was getting in, but I had no idea to that extent.
The thing that doesn't surprise me, but I hadn't really thought
about before, is that...you send a drug dealer to prison,
why would he stop being a drug dealer inside prison?
I think that the life in prison for many of these guys,
whether they like it or not, is now becoming an extension of the street,
but, actually, the value is much greater.
'This has opened my eyes to just how huge the problem is.
'A recent report estimates that over 20,000 kilos of drugs
'are smuggled into UK prisons every year.'
Weapons are, as well, orchestrated through an illegal mobile
phone which is organised by a networker.
I've had a call from the guy that picked up the drugs and I'm
off to see him.
When I arrive, he is prepping the goods ready to drop off to
a mule who will smuggle them into prison.
So how does it work? Like, what, you get a call?
And then what happens with the mule? How do they get that in?
And how often do you do this?
But that's a lot of weed going into prison, though, isn't it?
And how long have you been doing this?
So for this one ounce here, how much do you get?
When will this be inside?
'He's let me tag along to drop off to the mule.
'This is the final link in the chain
'before it gets into prison.'
Have you ever worked with any bent prison officers?
Tell me some examples of when you used screws as mules.
Where are you going?
'I'm not allowed to see where he's making the drop-off.
'He doesn't meet the mule, but leaves the drugs in a specific
'location for pick-up, which will happen in just a matter of minutes.'
An ounce of weed is now making its way inside.
The mule is an inmate on short release.
He will insert the drugs,
hope he doesn't get strip-searched
and then once back in his cell,
remove them and hand them over
to the prison dealer who made the order.
I'm surprised that prison officers have been mentioned as
a source of smuggling contraband inside.
Hiya.
'I meeting a former prison officer to get her take on what goes on
'behind prison walls.'
Tell me a little bit about yourself and your career.
In your years working in the prison system, did you see many
mobile phones or SIM cards, that kind of thing knocking about?
Normal?
How big do you think the problem is?
Seizures of drugs and mobile phones in prisons
have soared in recent years.
In 2014, nearly 10,000 handsets
and SIM cards and 6,000 drug packages were seized.
What kind of thing did you find?
If someone's stashing drugs in their cell, where's the usual...?
Is there a usual place?
And how many are we talking? A lot?
They get fined for doing a good job?
'I'm keen to hear how she thinks contraband is getting inside.'
To come to prison to make money rather than, unfortunately, get
arrested and go to prison.
They're actually looking to go to prison.
'I want to talk about what I've heard about prison officers
'being used as mules.'
How do staff do it?
I mean, don't they have to go through security as well?
So when you turn up for work in the morning, you could have anything.
You could have weapons on you, you could have guns, you could have...
And what, you could just walk in?
Do you think people are vulnerable to corruption?
What was the toughest or most shocking thing that you
experienced while you were working in the prison?
Wow.
I mean, does them potentially having a mobile phone
make that a lot more of a threat?
And there'd be no trace of that, I guess,
if it was all done over an illegal mobile phone.
The network involved in getting contraband into prison is far
more complex than I imagined.
I think the willingness of people to take things in because they
don't fear the consequences, I think that speaks volumes.
As the technology gets better,
the problem's going to get a whole lot worse.
The whole environment in the prison system is going to change.
It's becoming more violent because there's a whole currency in there,
there's the whole black market, and whether you like it or not,
there's going to be fallout from that.
You could go to prison for something quite small and you could end
up getting caught up and selling phones, taking drugs, all because
of this sort of dark economy that is created from the prison system.
There will be a way to solve it, but it's going to cost
a lot of money because it's got so bad.