One week after a number of prohibited items were discovered in the Lusignan Prison on the East Coast of Demerara, yet another set of contraband items was unearthed following a raid on Monday.
Reports are prison authorities raided the Lusignan facility between 12:02h and 14:50h on Monday which led to the discovery of 14 cellphones, 15 SIM cards, one tattoo machine, five pairs of scissors, 48 improvised weapons, 85 grams of cannabis, $3040 in cash, a quantity of chargers, one knife, one chopper, and a quantity of razor blades. These items were found in Holding Bay Two, while three
cellphones, nine improvised weapons, one tattoo machine, one pair of scissors, one cable and one earpiece were found in Holding Bay Three.
Meanwhile, in Holding Bay One, three improvised weapons, four lighters, one cellphone and one earpiece were unearthed.
This find comes exactly seven days after ranks attached to the very prison seized contraband items including 45 improvised weapons, six lighters, one metal foil, 36 razor blades, three cellphone chargers, one white cellphone, a quantity of empty ziplock bags, one tattoo machine, a quantity of nails, two headphones, three broken pieces of metal and a quantity of pallet wood.
That search lasted for a few hours.
Earlier in the month, a raid was conducted at the Georgetown Prison at Camp Street during which 19 cellular phones, five phone chargers, one flash drive, 15 cigarette lighters, two packs of cigarettes, five pairs of scissors, sev-en improvised weapons, and 774 grams of cannabis were found.
Prior to that raid, another raid was carried out at Lusignan Prison. There again razor blades, 17 phone chargers, 24 lighters, a quantity of wires, eight metal spoons, two pairs of scissors, one plastic knife, two nail clips, a quantity of ziplock bags, six bottles of pepper sauce, one pack of cards, three bottles of medicine, four bottles of oil with sus-pected cannabis seeds, one memory card and three mirrors were found.
The smuggling of contraband items into prisons remains a perennial problem within the system. Authorities have been working assiduously to curb the practice, and these efforts have resulted in several prison officers being caught facilitating the illegal trade, which is said to be “big business”.
In fact, back in July, Director of Prisons, Gladwin Samuels had disclosed during a press conference that several prison officers had been relieved of their duties after they were found to be working in collusion with each other in order to facilitate the movement of suspected contraband into the Lusignan Prison Holding Bay area.
