Officials: Phones Smuggled into Prison Inside Bodies of Detainees

Five terrorists serving sentences in Ofer Prison were caught smuggling cellphones into the prison – with the smuggling done by youths who were arrested and sent to the prison’s lockup. The five had hired the youths to smuggle phones into the prison by ingesting them; when they were in the prison, the youths would extract them from their stomachs and hand them over to the prisoners.

The phones were discovered Sunday in a raid of prisoners’ cells. Phones, SIM cards, batteries and other items were discovered in the cells. A riot broke out as security officials conducted the raid. Officials were able to bring the incident under control and continue with the search and seizure of the illicit items.

Most of the items had been smuggled into the prison via the network of youths, the Service said. The youths had been arrested on a variety of security charges, apparently by design, in order to get themselves into the prison. It is not clear how the youths ingested the phones, which were full-sized and full-featured. Gang members were able to sell them for tens of thousands of shekels each, the Prisons Service said. The youths were paid a “small amount” for their work, the Service said.

Two months ago, officials discovered a prisoner who tried to enter the prison with no fewer than 7 phones inside his body. In a statement, the Prisons Service said that it “stands in the forefront of the war against terror, and we will continue to ensure the security and independence of the Prisons Service for the good of all Israelis.”