Man throwing drugs packets into Salford prison captured on video
A man from Manchester has been jailed for two years after being caught on camera hurling drugs packets over a prison fence.
Police have released footage that shows Michael Hopkins, 29, throwing the contraband into HMP Forest Bank in Pendleton, Salford.
GMP said that Hopkins went through the undergrowth that surrounds the prison and jumped the perimeter fence before launching two packages over the prison wall.
He was “swiftly detained and arrested” by officers who were stationed nearby and being fed information from the prison’s internal CCTV system.
384g of tobacco, 12.2g of cannabis and five A4 pages of psychoactive substance laced paper – “worth up to several thousand pounds inside of prison” according to GMP – were recovered from the packages.
Hopkins claimed he did not know the contents and had been told to throw the items by a man who he refused to name.
Hopkins was sentenced last week at Minshull Street Crown Court – receiving two years in jail after pleading guilty to one count of attempting to convey contraband into a prison and two counts of conveying contraband into a prison.
He was also sentenced to nine months for now-activated suspended sentences in relation to handling stolen goods and dangerous driving.
Detective Sergeant Andrew Vizard, of GMP’s Serious Crime Division, said that contraband was a “big problem inside prisons”.
“Any drugs entering the prison system can lead to further crimes being committed by inmates and pose a serious risk to the safety of prison staff,” he stated.
Matt Spencer, Director at HMP Forest Bank said: “This arrest and conviction shows that partnership working across criminal justice organisations in Greater Manchester is strong.
“Smuggling contraband into our prisons greatly increases levels of debt, violence and intimidation and will not be tolerated.”