Officers at Silverwater Women’s Correctional Centre became suspicious last month after noticing the spine of a ‘Thinking of You’ card addressed to an inmate was slightly detached.
Governor Paula Quarrie said intelligence officers located 12 buprenorphine strips, weighing 0.6g, after pulling away the inner paper from the cardboard backing.
“Someone was thinking of this inmate in completely the wrong way,” Ms Quarrie said.
“My staff did a great job to locate these drugs before they could get into the wrong hands.”
There were about 100 incidents last year of contraband found in letters, cards, parcels or other mail sent to inmates. Buprenorphine strips were the most common item of contraband seized.
‘Bupe’ is a prescription heroin-replacement and can be worth about $200 per strip in a maximum-security centre.
Commissioner Peter Severin praised staff for their continued vigilance and commitment to stamping contraband out of our prisons.
Heroin replacement concealed inside inmates’ greeting cards
PRISON officers are increasingly finding prescription drug buprenorphine hidden carefully inside greetings cards being delivered to prison inmates
