Ken Foy

Tiny, tiny little phones there.

Yeah and when up to last week there was 421 of those little tiny phones seized in Weedfield Prison alone which they're really small, really hard to detect and

Yeah, and they're obviously very popular with prisoners.

But on top of that, there was something like almost 130 smartphones as well, which are obviously bigger seats.

Well apart from that we saw a lock knife a big serious blade on it that had come in on a drone that was intercepted a month earlier but there's been in recent times a major fear and I think it's at all levels of the prison service that an actual firearm

loaded or could come into a closed prison.

And it's the chaos that that could cause within such a confined area.

It's almost unthinkable.

And I think that's one of the main reasons as well.

Well, there's plenty of reasons, but it's certainly one of the most significant factors in why there is this big joint operation now between the Irish Prison Service and the Gardaí.

Oh, yes.

In Wheatfield, up to the time of our visit, I think there had been 26 arrests in relation to various forms of attempting to get contraband into just that prison.

So, yeah, you will be seeing now, I guess, in the coming months,

And further on, actual court cases, there has been a couple so far.

Mainly charges, but you'll be seeing plenty more, I get the feeling.

Like the guard operation is quite significant.

It's been run out of Roninstown Guard Station, which is a local guard station, far Wheatfield, and also Clover Hill Prison is beside it, the Remand Prison, which is also suffering from the same, exact same difficulties.

So they have an intelligence-led operation and I think there was a particular focus on it in the last two months, but it was a significant amount of arrests and also arrests of some significant people as well that we'll be covering.

make improvements on you're never going to get to a situation where nothing is ever smuggled into any prison but they do believe that while the technology gets ahead of them that they are they can catch up oh yes they believe it's actually one of the governors Tony Harris said it's a battle that he's confident in fact that they will win yeah what he says he said something to the effect of that if I'm back in

Wheatfield in two years time he would be hoping the story would be that there hadn't been a drone incursion into the jail for many months before but we'll have to see well and hopefully you're back in not back in Wheatfield in any other context other than visiting Kent but it is possible yes anything's possible