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The Government's failure to tackle the problem of contraband in prisons is directly responsible for $1 million worth of methamphetamine getting onto the streets, National's corrections spokesman says.
Simon Power said a Wellington court was yesterday told the drugs were imported from Thailand by a prisoner using an
unauthorised cellphone from inside Rimutaka Prison.
"If this prisoner didn't have a cellphone, it wouldn't have happened," Mr Power said.
"Not only does it seem a deal was conducted from inside one of our toughest prisons, but it was done right under the nose of a special corruption inquiry there - which has been going on for 10 months."
The Government was too slow to act and had done little to stop the flow of contraband, he said.
"Under the Labour Government, Rimutaka has become a haven for criminals to continue their illegal activities unhindered.
"It's time for a full parliamentary inquiry into this department."
Department of Corrections acting assistant general manager operations for the prison service Karen Urwin said a couple of phones had been found as part of routine searches at Rimutaka Prison and handed to police.
Police checked their sim card activity and as part of their investigation uncovered quite a large drug ring, Ms Urwin said.
"Once we handed the cellphones over that was the end of the Department of Corrections involvement."
She said the man who made the calls was no longer in prison, but could not comment on specific details of the investigation because it was in the hands of police and before the court.
"We are very pleased with the success of the operation that uncovered the phones and ... we're pleased that the things that we handed over to the police have led to this. It's great."
Cellphones were a problem in prisons, she said.
" Sadly they're so small these days that they're of course carried internally into our jail. So it's an ongoing battle to find them."
However, the Government had invested a significant amount of resources into combating the problem and Corrections had been working quite closely with Telecom and Vodafone.
"We're about to start trailing a number of technologies in our jails to actually make it so that cellphones, nobody is even going to want to bring them in because they're going to be completely useless."
Corrections Minister Damien O'Connor would be making some announcements about the trials and the solutions the department had come up with over the next few weeks, Ms Urwin said.
Piyaporn Paetmuangjan, 32, who was involved in the importation, yesterday pleaded guilty to 11 charges of importing the drug in Wellington District Court.
The methamphetamine was smuggled into the country inside clothing packages and distributed to syndicates based in Auckland, Wellington, the Hutt Valley and Wanganui, the court heard yesterday.
Paetmuangjan, who coordinated the deliveries, now faces a jail term.
She was remanded on bail to appear at the High Court on September 14 for sentencing.
Her five co-accused have yet to be dealt with.
- NZPA