Security alert in Mountjoy as prisoner finds drugs, spends six hours on roof

By William O'Toole

A major security alert was launched at Mountjoy prison yesterday after an inmate spent more than six hours on the prison roof taking drugs.

It is understood that the drugs were dropped into security netting and the inmate retrieved them before climbing onto the roof.

The prisoner, who is serving a a three-and-a-half year sentence, eventually agreed to come down from the roof at 7pm last night.

Prison authorities are set to investigate how the drugs got onto the security netting.

In recent years Mountjoy authorities have installed an expensive netting system around the prison walls to prevent drugs reaching prisoners.