To dodge sniffer dogs, smugglers throw packets of mobile phones, drugs into Faridkot jail

Advertisement

Faridkot, December 31

The deployment of sniffer dogs by the authorities to check the supply and entry of drugs and mobile phones into the jail premises here notwithstanding, the increasing incidents of seizure of mobile phones in the past one week and the arrest of three persons has revealed that while the dogs kept waiting at the entry of the jail to check the entry of the prohibited items, smugglers used the air route to drop these items and avoid the sniffers.

Throwing these gadgets and contraband across the 30-foot boundary wall of the jail from outside is the new modus operandi being adopted by the smugglers here.

While nearly 20 mobile phones have been seized in the past one week, three persons were arrested from outside the boundary wall of the jail in Faridkot yesterday. The police have found that some youths are on the job of supplying these prohibited items to the jail by throwing these over the wall to make a quick buck. They make small packets, containing drugs and small-sized mobile phones, and pack these in cushioned material and throw these across the wall at pre-decided locations, said the jail authorities.

While the jail authorities were hopeful that sniffer dogs would smell lithium in the batteries of the mobile phones and detect these, the new problem for the authorities is that the small-sized China-made Kechadoa mobile phones are being smuggled into the jail by some inmates by hiding these in their rectum. These mobile phones, which are less than 7 cm in length and 3 cm in width, can be easily hidden in the rectum. These are highly difficult for the jail authorities to detect during the physical checking of the inmates. The sniffer dogs are also not of much help in detecting these devices hidden inside the human body.

A senior jail officer said the authorities had deployed guards at vulnerable points and it was difficult to deploy the force outside the jail to check the smugglers as the jail was surrounded by agriculture farms and the movement of a person in these farm fields could not be questioned. While questioning five such suspects on Friday, the jail authorities had arrested three persons for trying to throw mobile phones and other prohibited items from outside, while two had escaped.

How they operate

• Throwing mobile phones and drugs across the 30-foot boundary wall of the Faridkot jail from outside is the new modus operandi being adopted by he smugglers
• They make small packets, containing drugs and small-sized mobile phones, and pack these in cushioned material and throw these across the wall at pre-decided locations