A member of staff at a Staffordshire jail has been suspended on suspicion of attempting to supply inmates with drugs, it emerged today.
Police found a stash of class A and class C drugs in a car when they swooped on HMP Featherstone near Wolverhampton after receiving a tip-off.
The raid on the vehicle, which was parked in the prison’s car park, comes just weeks after the jail was revealed as having the highest level of heroin abuse of any other in the country.
Ministry of Justice figures revealed more than one in six inmates, 16.7 per cent, tested positive for the opiate in random tests – four times the national average.
A 27-year-old man has been arrested and bailed on suspicion with intent to supply controlled drugs after the raid at Featherstone last Thursday.
Dc Andy Smith, of Chase division, said today: “Following intelligence, officers from the division worked with members of staff at HMP Featherstone to carry out a drugs warrant.
“A 27-year-old man from Birmingham was arrested on suspicion of intent to supply controlled drugs. He is currently on police bail until July.”
A spokesman for the Ministry of Justice said: “A member of staff has been suspended from HMP Featherstone pending the outcome of a police investigation.”
The drugs have been sent off for testing.
Last month’s survey found that of 139 prisons in England and Wales, only 38 were clear of positive opiate tests. HMP Prison Birmingham had a positive rate of 5.6 per cent, Dovegate Prison in Staffordshire, 8.6 per cent, and Stafford Prison one per cent.
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