There’s a lot of sole searching now going on among jailbirds at a prison after a swoop by guards.
Because some of them have been caught smuggling in zombie drug Spice – inside their trainers.
The ruse is believed to have been used scores of times by freed prisoners being recalled because of a breach of licence.
And some offenders almost certain of getting a jail term even used the trainers trick before going to court for sentence.
They devised a way to get through security checks by tucking paper soaked in the synthetic mind-altering substance under trainer insoles.
A source at Category C HMP Moorland near Doncaster said: “It was popular among returning prisoners. They knew it was a sure fire way to get drugs inside or make a few quid selling them.”
A credit card sized piece of paper soaked in Spice – which is smoked in a makeshift pipe – fetches at least £50 behind bars, a hefty mark-up on the local street price.
The insider added: “People facing a certain prison sentence also tried it on. It seemed a failsafe until guards got wind.”
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Now convicts at Moorland, home to 1,000 men, must remove trainers for inspection. Jail bosses have been battling deadly Spice for more than a decade. Users can have breathing problems and heart attacks. The latest smuggling tactic emerged in a report by the Independent Monitoring Board.
It said: “Staff are acutely aware of the need to identify new avenues for the passing of illicit items.” Smuggling has included the use of drones. The Prison Service has spent more than £100million on anti-smuggling systems.
