Prison officials at the New Amsterdam Prison in Berbice, Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne) on Wednesday morning discovered several illicit items that were believed to have been thrown over the fence from the outside.
The discovery was made some time around 10:30h “next to a chicken pen” in the prison compound, Director of Prisons (ag), Gladwin Samuels revealed.
The items found included: two parcels containing narcotics, 18 packs of cigarettes, a quantity of ziplock bags, 12 packs of bamboo, and a plastic bottle containing El Dorado 5 Year Old rum.
No one has been arrested for the discovery, but investigations are ongoing.
This incident comes on the heels of several attempts to throw illicit items over the
The items discovered in the New Amsterdam Prison Compound on Wednesday
fence of prison facilities across the country.
In fact, only Tuesday last, Police and prison ranks stationed at the Lusignan Prison foiled an attempt to throw illicit items over the fence around 02:15h. A suspect was seen attempting to throw a black plastic-wrapped parcel over the fence and as such, the ranks opened fire at the individual, who made good his escape.
However, in the process, he dropped the parcel, which contained a total of 1002 grams of narcotics, a large quantity of tobacco leaves, four cellphones without SIM cards, one charger, one earpiece, and 33 packets of cigarettes.
These incidents come less than a week after Public Security Minister Khemraj Ramjattan expressed his disgust at the recent series of attempts to smuggle contraband into prisons and the discoveries of various illicit items at several prison facilities across the country, saying that steps are being taken to curb this practice.
Furthermore, he went on to recognise that the lack of proper management at these facilities was probably contributing to the increased instances of smuggling attempts and the discovery of dozens of contraband items within the system.
The smuggling of contraband items remains a perennial problem within the prison system and while authorities have been working to curb the practice, several prison officers have been caught facilitating the illegal trade, which is said to be “big business”.
