It used to be a brown package slipped under the table during visiting time.
Now prisoners are being forced to turn to more creative - and often bizarre - methods of smuggling drugs into the North East's jails.
Drugs are worth a fortune behind bars, and almost a third of Britain's prisoners boast they are easy to get hold of.
But with the Government spending millions on scanners, dogs and other methods to snuff drugs out, smugglers are turning to everything from underpants to cereal boxes to get them inside.
And in one case, a trusted staff member got involved - and made a mint.
HMP Northumberland kitchen worker Lindsey Keir was a trusted employee of 22 years. But she "sold her soul" by stuffing contraband - including drugs - into cereal boxes in a get-rich-quick plot.
She made thousands and splashed her dirty cash on treats - including a new set of windows.
But those windows were replaced with iron bars after she was jailed when her illegal loot was found stuffed in Shredded Wheat and Crunchy Nut Cornflakes boxes she was carrying.
Another smuggler locked up was Theodore Adekoya, whose pants were full of contraband.
A package the size of a brick was found by HMP Northumberland staff. It contained spice, cannabis, nine mobile phones and tobacco worth £40,000.
A court heard the package was for a prisoner, Raheem Jackson, who he didn't even know.
However Wendy Rochester did know the person she was smuggling drugs to.
She smuggled illegal buprenorphine tablets - a Class C drug - to her ex Kenneth Smart, who was doing time in HMP Northumberland.
The Byker woman wasn't locked up despite admitting to sneaking them in under her clothes.
And she told the court their relationship had ended - although one relationship which hadn't ended was Rebecca Hackett's.
She tried to pass £5,500 of Spice to her boyfriend - a prisoner at County Durham's Holme House.
However she was spotted taking the package from her waistband and putting it in his shirt during an “amorous embrace”
But she went from being a lovebird to a jailbird after a judge locked her up.
Prisoners - including HMP Northumberland - have been praised by watchdog's recent for taking steps to halt the flow of drugs into jails.
But speaking about the issue at HMP Durham, Chris Hutchinson - a member of the Independent Monitoring Board - revealed 'Spice' had been sent to that the jail hidden in the seals of envelopes and impregnated in letters.
"There are numerous, numerous ways they are getting the drugs in. Spice is the main problem. It comes in letters and envelopes," he said. "All they have to do is cut it out.
"I have seen a guy come in with Spice in his hair. They are very clever and very inventive."
