Prison dog sniffs out smuggler's Marmite trick

Cannabis concealed in a rubber glove inside shoes and smeared with Marmite failed to get past a drug sniffer dog at Hawke's Bay Prison last week.
Prison manager George Massingham said 20g of cannabis was found during a routine check of items posted to the prison.
"The drug dog indicated the presence of drugs in the package and after inspection by staff, the shoes inside were found to contain cannabis concealed within a rubber glove, which was smeared in Marmite or Vegemite.
"Our drug dogs are trained to detect certain odours down to parts per trillion, so it takes a bit more than sandwich spread, however strong-smelling, to fool them."
The senders details had been passed on to police.
Mr Massingham said posting goods inside of shoes seemed to be popular at the moment as drugs were found in a similar fashion at New Plymouth Prison.
He said Hawke's Bay Prison had several checkpoints as well as drug detector dogs which meant a high chance of intercepting drugs.
Last week the same dog and handler had found cannabis and a large amount of cannabis seeds during a search of visitors' vehicles.
The occupants had been barred from visiting the prison.
"We are absolutely committed to stopping contraband entering the prison.
"It was very pleasing that we could seize these drugs, hand them over to police and prevent them from potentially being taken or even grown in the case of the seeds by prisoners."
Mr Massingham encouraged anyone being pressured to supply prisoners with drugs to call the Department of Corrections on 0800 JAIL SAFE (5245 7233).