'Prisoners are brazenly stockpiling contraband': Rising number of criminal gangs operating in prisons

Mountjoy Prison has the most gangs, with 16 criminal factions, including the Kinahan cartel, the Hutch crime group, and Blanchardstown crime gang.

Prison officers are grappling with a sharp rise in the number of criminal gangs operating in jails, many of them driving a booming trade in drug, weapon, and phone smuggling.

This internal gangland threat is accompanied by rising levels of violence in a prison system that is buckling under an escalating overcrowding crisis.