Visitor Arrested at Auckland Women's Facility
A routine operation searching cars and their
occupants at Auckland Region Women’s Corrections Facility
on Sunday morning led to Police arresting a man because of
items found in his vehicle.
“The man was at the
prison to pick up a form to apply to be an approved visitor
for a prisoner. However, anyone arriving on our property can
be searched no matter what they are there for, and because
of what we found in this man’s car, it is unlikely he will
be allowed onto the site again for a long, long time,”
says Prison Manager Agnes Robertson.
“Alerting the
suspicion of staff was a large amount of cash, including
foreign dollars, that the man had inside his car. The value
was more than NZD$20,000. When staff continued searching
they also found a quantity of drugs – thought to be worth
around $10,000. The drugs were primarily packaged as
‘plugs’, small glad-wrapped parcels for internal
concealment. Staff found cannabis and drugs suspected to be
dimethyltryptamine and ketamine as well as more than 100
canisters of Nitrous Oxide gas.
“The man was
detained by staff until the Police arrived to arrest him and
remove the contraband items, which are likely to be used as
evidence against him if he is charged with their
possession.”
“The demand for drugs in prison is
high and unfortunately prisoners put a lot of pressure on
their friends and family to smuggle it in for them. It is
our job to keep it out,” says Ms Robertson.
“Contraband, like drugs and weapons, making their
way into the hands of prisoners is extremely dangerous for
other prisoners, our staff and in rare cases, the public. It
is unacceptable and the exact reason we continue to be
vigilant in our searches and our general screening of
visitors, contractors, and staff. In addition to the man
facing possible criminal charges laid by Police, we will
also look to ban him from visiting the prison, meaning he
wont be able to visit his friend while she serves her
sentence.”
“Every single person entering the
prison goes through the same security process and we will
not hesitate in taking action against people naive enough to
think that they will get away with it,” says Ms
Robertson.
ENDS