Wheatfield Prison recorded the largest number of mobile phones, illegal drugs and weapons seized last year.
And Mountjoy recorded the highest number of hooch finds. New figures from the Irish Prison Service show a total of 1,425 mobiles were found in the country’s 12 adult prisons last year – up 4% on the 2021 figures of 1,369.
The IPS figures also reveal a slight decrease in the number of drug seizures, with illegal drug detections falling by almost 140 from 1,518 in 2021 to 1,378 last year. A total of 495 mobile phones were discovered at Wheatfield, in South Dublin, followed by Mountjoy Prison where 363 handsets were detected and seized.
Read more: Mountjoy prisoner allegedly attacked officer after being involved in football match at Croke Park
Cloverhill Prison, which is next to Wheatfield, had the third highest number of mobile phone discoveries with 306 found. At Dublin’s Mountjoy Prison, 255 litres of hooch was found while the second highest quantity of the alcoholic drink seized was 59 litres in Wheatfield.
The concoction is made by inmates using a number of basic ingredients. Wheatfield also recorded the highest level of illegal drugs found in any of the adult prisons with 510 seizures, up 73 on 2021’s figure of 437 seizures followed by Cloverhill with 283 seizures. A total of 233 drug seizures were made in Mountjoy.
The number of weapons confiscated by prison staff increased from 292 in 2021 to 311 last year with 69 seizures made in Wheatfield followed by 61 in Limerick jail and 44 in Cloverhill. No contraband was found in Arbour Hill in Dublin and the two open prisons at Loughan House, Co Cavan, and Shelton Abbey, Co Wicklow.
No mobile phones were seized in Dublin’s female prison The Dochas last year while seven seizures of drugs were made and one weapon was found.
Read next:
Woman terrified after allegedly being tracked by AirTag after landing in Dublin Airport
Amazon submit plans for three new data centres in north Dublin
Toddler left standing on buggy in back of moving car in Dublin
Urgent recall of raw chicken products sold in several Tesco, Dunnes, Lidl and Aldi
Sign up to the Dublin Live Newsletter to get all the latest Dublin news straight to your inbox.
