Ganja, improvised weapons among contraband found during prison search

Members of the Guyana Prison Service (GPS) and Guyana Police Force (GPF) on Thursday conducted a search in the Mazaruni Prison during which a quantity of cannabis and other contraband items were found.

The search which lasted several hours unearthed 16 cigarette lighters, 10 cellular phones, 3 phone batteries, 17 improvised weapons, 25 grams of cannabis and a quantity of cigarettes. No incidents were reported during the search.
Back in January, 970 grams of ganja was found at the Mazaruni Prison during a routine search by prison officials. The ganja was reportedly discovered in a grey bucket in the kitchen area of the penitentiary.
Following the discovery, the cannabis was handed over to ranks at the Bartica Police Station where it was weighed and amounted to 970 grams.
This occurrence is nothing new at the facility as officials are constantly finding prohibited items.
Late last year, during an exercise at the Special Watch and Bricks sections of the Mazaruni Prison, Mazaruni River, Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni), several contraband items were found.
These included three cellular phones, 148 grams of cannabis, 34 cigarettes, five lighters, eight improvised weapons, two two-litre bottles of fermented wine, one metal spoon, one earpiece, two cell phone adapters, one cell phone case, and a quantity of tobacco and other prohibited items.
The items were confiscated and an investigation was launched into the discovery. Prior to that, a similar exercise at the penitentiary unearthed a quantity of ganja.
It was reported that officials were conducting daily checks in and around the prison and its environs when they observed a prisoner acting in a suspicious manner.
A search was conducted on his person, and, in his pants crotch, a bulky black parcel containing the cannabis was found. Further searches were conducted in the Tuck Shop on the premises where two bulky black parcels with ganja were also found.