I never noticed this before, but isnt it odd that we still have a newspaper out there called "the Daily Telegraph"!?
---- Drug ring phone cards on sale in jail By Jasper Copping (Filed: 02/04/2006) The war against drugs is being undermined by a black market in mobile phone sim cards containing details of drug dealing franchises, it is feared. Recently jailed prisoners are selling the cards to inmates nearing release for up to £20,000. Each contains a microchip storing the telephone numbers of drug suppliers and addicts, which were once in the memory of the dealer's phone. That information provides access to an established drug-dealing network, with the potential to earn thousands of pounds a week. Experts are worried that the illicit trade is hampering police efforts to close down drug networks because a criminal, armed with the information on the sim (subscriber identity module) card, can replace a dealer who has been locked up. One prison officer, who asked not to be named, told the Sunday Telegraph that the market in sim cards was growing rapidly and that they were changing hands for up to £20,000. "Sim cards have become big currency in prison because they can contain the key to a criminal enterprise," he said. "It is the equivalent of handing someone a ready-made business. "If someone goes to prison for a long time because of a drugs offence it makes sense for them to sell their sim card. The addicts will not be too choosy about where they get their drugs from." Sim cards, like mobile phones, are banned in prison but they can be smuggled in and kept by inmates to be sold on. Prison officers have been asked to look for the cards but, because of their size, they are difficult to detect. The prison officer added: "Sim cards are very small and easy to hide. Prisoners can keep them in their mouths and all sorts of places without fear of being detected." The cards, which can work in any mobile phone, are most valuable when a drug dealer has only recently been arrested. Money for the cards usually changes hands through contacts outside prison. Martin Barnes, the chief executive of the drug information charity DrugScope, said: "Unfortunately, drug markets can prove extremely lucrative for upper-end dealers." A Home Office spokesman said: "There are rigorous search systems in prisons for prisoners and visitors to prevent mobile phones and sim cards entering prisons. There are occasional breaches in security and these items do find their way into prisons. It is now well established that prisoners can, and do, secrete these items in body cavities." --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ TELECOM-CITIES Current searchable archives (Feb. 1, 2006 to present) at http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Old searchble archives at http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
