1,644 mobiles seized in prisons

IN EXCESS of 1,600 smuggled mobile phones were seized in prisons countrywide over the past 12 months, according to newly published figures.

Signalling a huge clampdown on prisoners believed to be directing organised crime from their cells, the Irish Prison Service has confiscated 1,644 mobile phones since September 2006.

Almost a third of the mobile phones were seized in Mountjoy Prison, with Limerick and Wheatfield accounting for 202 and 179 seizures respectively.