Eavesdropping uncovers extent of P in Mt Eden

By BRIDGET CARTER

Bugged conversations with a prisoner have revealed the extent of the drug P in Mt Eden Prison.

The comments, made during a secretly taped cellphone conversation the prisoner had while serving time inside the jail in 2002, were played to an Auckland District Court jury during a major drugs trial this week.

In it the prisoner seems to gloat about the amount of P in the prison and even says a visitor had obtained drugs while at Mt Eden.

The conversation was between Dwayne Allan Marsh, who was inside the prison, and Tony Jacomb. Both were charged as a result of a long-term police operation.

Marsh had said: "There's more P in here than anywhere."

Jacomb had pleaded guilty to a number of charges related to selling and manufacturing methamphetamine while a jury yesterday could not reach a verdict on whether Marsh had sold methamphetamine.

The officer in charge of the operation, Detective Sergeant Darryl Brazier, said police believed at the time that were readily available there, which was of concern.

It had been revealed that one of the people connected to the case was distributing 6g a week of P inside the jail. "That's $6,000 worth every week," he said.

Corrections refused to comment on the conversation.

But in September last year, when former TV3 news reader Darren McDonald was sentenced on drugs charges, Justice Marion Frater said his sentence should be deferred given his high profile and "the acknowledged availability" of drugs in prison.

National's law and order spokesman Tony Ryall said there was nothing to suggest anything had changed in the last two years in respect to the amount of drugs in jail.