The hazards of smuggling narcotics in to prison.
First published – July 10 2007.
Smuggling narcotics into the prison system can be a risky business, screws looking to catch you out, more inmates looking to get high then there are drugs on the menu plus cell searches etc etc.
It certainly is a fine line or a razors edge so to speak.
As I have said in earlier blogs it is easy as hell to come by drugs in the NSW prison system though with no shortage of heads willing to take the chance for a dollar or an escape.
During my stay I found it wasnt so much difficult to get the drugs in, the main difficulty was keeping everyone happy once you had the drugs in your hand.
I brought some narcotics and weed into the system for a while, mainly during the earlier times in my sentence.
One reason was the stress involved with the early part of doing time, sentencing, shattered dreams etc.
After a while though I found out it is far easier to let someone else bring the drugs in to jail and then to work with them instead of doing it yourself and trying to either to keep things secret or keep everyone happy.
It is all politics in gaol.
The first few months I was locked up on remand as I had been found guilty but was was still awaiting sentencing at remand centres in the ACT.
This was the most uncertain period of my sentence which was made even more stressful by my attempts to continue running my weed business from inside.
I would do this using my ex girlfriend and a runner with my ex girl visiting me with updates and passing messages back outside for me.
This was successful until I received five years and greed over came both of these people but that is another story.
So back to the point, when my ex would come to visit me I would have her bring me narcotics and weed to help pass the time for me and the boys while also affording us those little luxuries at the same time.
It all started the second day I was at the remand centre while I was getting to know the lads there and contemplating my situation.
I asked a few of my new mates where the weed came from in the place and it was in two other wings I think they were b and f but I cant remember exactly.
The reason there was nothing in our wing was that it held all the guys fresh from civilian life that were not yet organised and sorted out.
I discovered that it took a week or two to be moved to the "main" wings.
I remember my second day in was a Tuesday and there were no visits on that day, I rang my ex girl from the yard and even though I knew the conversations were recorded I was pissed off at the time and straight out said to bring sme ome weed when you come to visit in the morning.
She was not yet familiar with any of the ways to smuggle the stuff in so it was a bit uncertain first time round.
One way to bring stuff in and the way I normally went for was for her to enter the remand centre with the stuff wrapped in water balloons in her mouth so if the screws were to look to hard she could swallow them.
You are only allowed one short kiss during a visit and although you can push the limit I always kept it to one so I didn‟t draw unwanted attention to my activities.
The ex would kiss me as she left and I would half swallow the packages, holding them in the back of my throat.
I never had any trouble with this method except once when during a strip search which involves coughing while naked I could feel I was going to cough up the balloons when the screw would tell me to cough.
I made small talk and then the screw asked me open my mouth which I did, he then said cough and I did.
That first cough didn‟t make the packages come out but it did start me coughing like crazy as they tickled the back of my throat!
The screw was kind of looking at me funny so I covered my mouth and just as I did one of the packages flew out of my mouth, hit my hand and rebounded back into my mouth!
I quickly got dressed and was escorted to the wing.
As I said earlier though the screws are the least of your worries once you get the stuff in, it is all jail politics after that.
When I first began bringing the stuff in I kept it extremely quite only telling one of my co offenders (the drug taking one lol) and two new gaol mates who had explained to me about the techniques involved.
As time moved on and we all moved to the bigger yard we began trading some of what we had for luxuries and people to clean our cells before cell check.
Eventually more and more people found out we were bringing stuff in.
At first everyone that found out tried the easiest way to get some action by simply hanging around me all the time and kissing ass but once the list of free loaders became to large that was when the trouble started.
I told all that knew I was no longer giving any stuff out free and would only be selling limited quantities to anyone I had a prior arrangement with.
When I say not giving any out I was still looking after my mates of course, I think some of them were living better then they did before prison.
At first this worked until one group of guys that really enjoyed their narcotics but weren‟t able to bring any in or purchase them through me started to have an influx of mates arrive in our wing over a couple of weeks.
During the same time many of our crew left for NSW prisons or got out.
This created a problem especially when one particular day began with our numbers going from five which was already a very low number to four and the other lads had two new mates come in taking the total to nine in there group.
As soon as the two new guys joined them and ours left we all new shit was going to start.
We knew who the two new guys were from outside prison and they weren't soft that‟s for sure.
Another stick in our position was that our biggest guy my co offender and cellmate had no idea what we were doing with the drugs as I had kept him out of it due to the respect I have for the guy.
We had a quick conference while the new guys set up there cells and then the two newies immediately came up and asked me to "do some laps" of the yard which is just basically walking back and forth in a concrete box thats like 15 mtrs by 7 mtrs.
So I join the guys and do some laps and of course the morning‟s topic is about me bringing the drugs in and how they can be hooked up, on credit of course.
Again it was a Tuesday and I was as straight up as I could be in the situation, I told them I would be getting a bit in on the Wednesday but wasn‟t sure if I could give them or any of there crew anything.
This didn‟t go down well so I lightened it up by saying if I can I will, knowing full well I couldn‟t or wouldn‟t give them anything even if only because they were trying to put the heavy on me.
I still had some weed and other things so me and the two remaining lads left in the loop went and got blazed while discussing what to do.
That night a few of the guys I did sell to came up and told me that they had been threatened and warned that they had to tell the other group if they purchased anything from me or knew of me selling.
There was little I could do, inside I couldn‟t call anyone or come up with any real strategy to play.
I just told the customers it was up to them and that I would have the stuff if they wanted it knowing they would still buy.
On the flip side of course I knew they would still tell to.
I got up the next morning and of course hadn‟t even finished breaky when a couple lads from the other group came to remind me to save them a cut for later payment, the terms used were of course far more colourful.
I headed to my visit later that morning and grabbed the package that was coming in before heading to the wing where I was met by both my mates and the other group.
Both sides were awaiting my successful mission.
With cameras in all the cells and the yard I made the excuse to the other group when I got back that I had the stuff but didn‟t want to pull it out yet as I thought the screws were watching me.
They bought the story but then at least one of them stuck to me at all times no matter where I went making any shifty manoeuvres impossible.
Finally after some time I said I was going to the toilet and while doing so pulled out a small amount of what I had and repackaged it so as not to have to show how much I had.(even my mates never saw that)
After this I headed to the main guy in the other groups cell and gave him a cut amount from the small amount I had repackaged telling him that was all he could have as I put the rest down my pants for safe keeping.
The whole nine of these guys circled around me as the main lad demanded more.
I refused telling him he had to pay the hundred he owed for that lot first and then I asked for a pen to write down my bank details for him.
At that point he cold cocked me in the jaw.
I stood my ground simply saying to him that what he just did was the exact opposite way he would ever get anything out of me.
Then I forced my way through the others, out the door and I headed to my cell.
Having kept my good mate/cell mate/co offender in the dark about my activities regarding my cottage prison drug bizo I then had to concote some shite story to him about why my jaw was swollen and why these dudes were fully pissed with me.
True to his character he stayed staunch with me so we sat in the middle of the yard and drank coffee to show we were still solid no matter what as the other two of our mates played cards not far from us.
The week went on pretty badly.
I sold my usual deals and looked after the boys which backfired a few days later.
One evening I was passing a package wrapped in a magazine from my cell across to a mates cell one night and one of other crew saw the deal go down in the reflection of a window.
I had acted as though what they saw was me getting rid of all I had.
I was telling them I had nothing left while reports came back to them that I was still selling and I was getting high all the time.
They become pretty pissed off and the yard became a pretty hot spot to be.
The other group would sit next to the door to visits during visiting hours to see if I would be going to get a visit and pick up.
For a while I got others to take visits from my ex but the packages would come back light so I stopped that.
The Mexican stand off went on until I decided to go on a visit to collect a package worth $1000 which isn‟t much out here but it is a lot inside.
I left what stash I had left with my co offender (the one that took drugs) and went to the visit.
As I handed him the stuff a guy from the other group came round the corner and saw what had just happened but he kept walking.
I had the visit on so I had to go.
When I got back shit began to heat up it turned out that while I was picking up at my visit the other group had rushed the cell of the guy I left my stuff with.
They were brandishing pens as knives and a boiled kettle filled with honey and water (gaol napalm) demanding the package which unfortunately he gave up.
As this was explained to me we took the opportunity to get stoned while for once the others weren‟t watching our every move.
To busy getting high on our supply I guess.
Then we went and sat in a row out the front of our neighbouring cells to enjoy the sun and show some sort of defiance and strength.
We were joined by my cellmate drinking a coffee and sensing what was up.
One of our mates went for a walk through the yard without us and within like 30 secs one of the other group drilled him with a couple of massive hits.
Us three stood up and yelled n what not scaring them away temporarily but we knew we couldn‟t win a battle with these fucks the numbers were just to bad.
Over the next couple of weeks me and my two co offenders were refused anything but full time gaol for our crimes and moved to another remand centre to await sentencing.
We were happy to move.
A few of the other group also came out to the other centre but found that the numbers were different in the new yard and they could not pull the same shenanigans there.
Things became about as easy as gaol and being separated from loved ones can be.
Me and my cellmate/coffender (yes the drug taking one lol) were now sharing a cell and I decided that I would not sell here so we spent our days and nights getting smashed and playing cards and stuff with the mates we had there.
This went on well until I got greedy as per my personality and my cellmates personality.
I considered starting to sell as the dynamic of the gaol now suited my crew and I.
The maximum spend in Canberra lock up is $100 a week ($50 twice a week) from a list of items on the gaol buy up .(NSW only $60 p w).
So me and my cellmate had a budget of $200 per week but we would smoke $70 in cigarettes and the rest wasn‟t keeping us happy for both munchies and hygiene products not to mention phone calls and other bits and pieces.
This silly idea ended up ruining what I had going in the end and turned in to a comedy of errors.
First I tried to bring in a lot more then usual by having my ex un screw a walkman, put the stuff inside and then drop it of at the front desk for me.
The plan worked until the fact that my ex is a moron came into play.
The screws tried to test the walkman by pushing play but the buttons didn‟t work because the ex had put some of the package in the way!
The police came in and informed me of what had happened.
They also said they couldn‟t find my ex and I knew they wouldn‟t.
I told them nothing and wasn‟t charged as the drugs never made it to me.
The screws removed my visit privileges which included visits.
So I brought in another two guys from the yard and got them involved in trying to set up a new hustle.
Me and one of them would put the funds into my ex girls account then my ex girl would get the stuff from wherever, add some weed from my runner and pass it to the third guys girlfriend who would then visit him and drop it off.
First of it seemed good to go as my ex girl got the cash and made up the package but then she never showed up to meet the third guys girl!
I called her and finally she dropped off the package after two days late while these other two guys were wondering if I was on the level or not.
The morning of the day she dropped off the stuff but before she had done so I was awoken by a screamed death threat in my ear.
It was one of the dudes I was doing this thing with telling me it had to be done that day or I would be stabbed.
It had me a bit stressed but I had dealt with people like him before and just yelled back until we came to an unsteady agreement and then I hightailed to the phone to hurry my slow ex slag up.
Next thing this other guys missus turns out to be some kind of crazy drug fiend and she doesn‟t show with the stuff going as far as to not take calls from her man in gaol!
After that I pretty much decided drugs in gaol was a bit to hectic and took up training and gambling instead.
I still moved a bit here and there to get a few little luxuries, pay off gambling losses and continued my mission to spend some periods of time smoking the herb but as far as bringing it in goes I only did that once more and it was the day before sentencing knowing I would be off to prison for a while.
A gaol yard friend had a family member in hospital, nothing serious but they knew the doctor and had him greatly over exaggerate the situation causing the screws to give our mate a day to visit the hospital.
As this was just before sentencing I decided to have a party pack brought in.
It was to get through my last two days in Canberra; one awaiting the sentence and one awaiting the truck to the NSW prison system.
For once things went smooth and I sat in my cell with my co offender discussing our plans and reflecting over some choice drugs, you may think that‟s nuts but it was a time of great stress for us both.
The next day we received a five year sentence each and spent our last night in the remand centre and last night in Canberra for what will end up being the whole five years for me.
We had partied, smoked, dealt and gone clubbing together on the outside so we sat and got high in the cell reminiscing on the old times and discussing what to do when our release would come and how life would have changed over time.
We even counted the non parole period and maximum sentence out in days which in hindsight was a dumb idea as it stayed with me for ages.
One of the few screws that were ok came to the cell and showed us a Canberra Times article about our sentence, he smelled the weed Im pretty sure but he let it slide.
Me and my cellmate stayed up till the wee hours talking shit and finished off the stash, next morning 7am we were off to the NSW prison system.
Back soon.
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