A WANTED man tried to smuggle a mobile phone and drugs into a prison – by cheekily hiding them up his backside.
He had handed himself in to Coventry police in March as he was wanted on recall to prison.
But after they took him to a strip search area, he was eventually found to have the phone and 100 deals of crack cocaine wrapped in condoms ‘plugged’ in a place where the sun don’t shine.
After being taken to hospital, Mohammed Siddiq retrieved the stash he was trying to get into the jail.
Siddiq (24) of Longfellow Road, Coventry, was jailed for three years and four months after pleading guilty at Warwick Crown Court to possessing the class A drug with intent to supply it.
Prosecutor Graeme Simpson said that, at the time, Siddiq was on licence from a 30-week prison sentence imposed in October last year for harassing his former partner.
He had been recalled after being arrested for further offences of harassing her and common assault, for which he was subsequently jailed for six months.
After being taken for a full-body search, he volunteered: “I’ll be honest with you, I’ve got something plugged. It’s a small bit of weed and some tobacco.”
He said he had wanted to take it into prison with him for his own use, and he retrieved cannabis and tobacco in a condom from his rectum.
He was taken to hospital for a further examination, where he disclosed he had inserted two further condoms.
In one were the 100 wraps of crack cocaine, worth more than £8,000 inside prison, while in the other was the mobile phone, a highly-prized commodity in jail where they are banned items.
Judge Sylvia de Bertodano observed that drugs and illegal phones ‘undermine the whole prison system,’ and asked why there was no separate charge in relation to the phone.
Mr Simpson suggested it was an aggravating feature of the drugs charge, but the judge commented: “It could be charged, and it hasn’t been.”
Simon Hunka, defending, said: “The whole origin of this was a drugs debt. He had been given drugs himself to look after, and he was robbed of them.
“That created a debt, and it was as a result of that debt that the request was made for him to do what he did.
“He was going into the police station knowing he was going to be going to prison. He was to be sentenced two days after this for offences unrelated to this matter, and that was known to others.”
Judge de Bertodano interjected: “The fact is, he agreed to do it. He had 100 deals to be dispersed around the prison to which he was being transferred.”
Mr Hunka said Siddiq was not a class A drug user himself, although cannabis had been a problem in the recent past, and was not in employment because he said he would ‘get bored with it.’
He added Siddiq was not claiming benefits, relying on his mother, a social worker, and occasional cash-in-hand work.
Jailing Siddiq, Judge de Bertodano told him: “Drugs are a curse in the prison system. They lead to violence in prison and are part of many of the problems prisons are now suffering from.
“The message must go out that those who bring drugs into prisons, even if they are succumbing to threats or pressure, must go to prison for a long time.
“You also had a mobile phone. You can consider yourself very fortunate that doesn’t form part of this sentencing exercise.”
