How drugs find their way inside prisons

In a midnight raid on February 8, Jashore police arrested Ashraful Murad Rubel, a guard at the district's central jail, for his involvement in drug trade.

The raid was prompted by intelligence indicating that there was a drug trader operating near the Char-Khamba intersection.

Upon searching Rubel, police found 100 yaba pills hidden in his jacket pocket. Further interrogation then led police to raid Najir Sankarpur area, from where they arrested another drug dealer -- Torab Ali -- with 150 yaba pills in his possession. Torab too was jail guard.

Both Rubel and Torab were found to be heavily involved in a narcotics trade racket.

However, they did not just sell the drugs outside jail.

Jail guards were, in fact, found smuggling and trading narcotics inside secure prisons across the country.

On December 18 last year, Saiful Islam, chief jail guard of Kashimpur High-Security Jail, was arrested with 300 yaba pills when he was attempting to smuggle those inside the prison.

A week earlier, Sohel Rana, another guard of the same jail, was caught with four sachets of marijuana and a subsequent search of his belongings led to the discovery of one kilogram of the drug in his trunk.

He too was arrested by the jail authorities. 

Earlier in September, a guard of Kashimpur Jail-2 was arrested with 200 yaba pills inside the prison.

According to data of the Department of Prisons, disciplinary actions have been taken against at least 25 jail guards for drug trafficking in the past year alone.

Despite this, drug trade inside jails continued unabated, with the rackets mainly being led by a section of unscrupulous jail guards.

Currently, 68 prisons across the country can accommodate 42,866 prisoners.

However, the number of prisoners is over 82,000 -- twice the capacity -- and one third of them are accused in drug cases, according to jail officials.

Speaking to The Daily Star, an accused in 27 criminal cases, who came out on bail from the Dhaka Central Jail on March 12, after 23 days of imprisonment, said, "The drugs that are mainly available inside the jail are marijuana and yaba. Other kinds of drugs can be arranged but it needs to be ordered earlier."

"A pair of yaba pills is now sold for Tk 500, and a sachet of marijuana, which can fill up a single empty cigarette, for Tk 200," said the inmate, who was on level-4 of the jail building named Padma.

When he was in jail the last time in 2023, the cost of a marijuana sachet was Tk 100.

The inmate, who went to jail at least 20 times since 2015, added, "The drugs are mainly sold inside the jails by notorious criminals and influential inmates. To be able to do so, they have to pay a certain amount of 'toll' to some jail guards and officials.

"Even then, if a trader is caught red-handed while selling, they have to pay an additional amount of Tk 5,000 to Tk 20,000 [to those guards and officials] in order to avoid charges."

He gave an example of an inmate who, in the beginning of March, was caught red-handed while consuming drugs and had to pay the jail guards off with Tk 5,000 at ward-4 of level-4 of the Padma building.

A former jail doctor, requesting anonymity, told this newspaper, "A huge number of patients of the Dhaka Central Jail are drug addicts. There have been several instances where inmates did the drugs inside the jail and some of them even admit to it.

"Asked, they said they usually carry it in plastic rolls that they hide inside their rectums."

Md Rasheduzzaman, the deputy director (intelligence wing) of Chattogram division's Department of Narcotics Control, told The Daily Star, "We have information that a section of jail inmates is involved in drug trade and even consume those inside the prisons.

"Though we have limitations in conducting drives inside prisons, the jail authorities do it regularly and also take action. Besides, we also try to conduct awareness programmes in this regard at least once a month inside the prisons with the jail authorities."

On September 19 last year, Additional Sessions Judge's Court-3 of Gazipur sentenced Kashimpur Jail-2 guard Azizar Rahman to five years imprisonment in a narcotics case, after he was found providing drugs to inmates. 

It happened after some guards found an inmate – Shahidul Islam -- with 100 yaba pills in his possession on September 21, 2017.

Upon interrogation, it was found that Shahidul had gotten the drugs from Azizar. Further searches found 600 yaba pills and 100 grams of marijuana in Azizar's home.

About the involvement of jail staffers and the rampant drug trade and abuse inside jails, Col Sheikh Sujaur Rahman, additional inspector general of the Department of Prisons, told The Daily Star, "We have a zero-tolerance policy against drugs. If any staffer or official is found involved, the both departmental and lawful action is taken against them.

"We have taken departmental actions against at least 25 jail guards for their involvement last year," he said.

Col Sujaur further said, "There is no scope to enter prisons without security checks. Whenever anyone is found with narcotics, even if it's a staffer, strict action is taken against the responsible one under the supervision of divisional deputy inspector generals."

However, arrests for carrying narcotics were not limited to junior staffers.

On October 26, 2018, Sohel Rana Biswas, jailer of the Chattogram Central Jail, was arrested with 12 bottles of Phensedyl, along with cash amounting to Tk 44 lakh, Fixed Deposit Receipts amounting to Tk 2.50 crore, Tk 1.30 crore in cheques, five cheque books of different banks, and a DSLR, from a Mymensingh-bound Bijoy Express Train in Kishorganj's Bhairab area.

Tawohidul Haque, associate professor at Dhaka University's Institute of Social Welfare and Research, told this newspaper, "Mainly two separate groups work as suppliers to meet the demands of drug addicts inside the jail. One group is responsible for supplying the narcotics at the jail gate or premises, and the second group, which consists of dishonest jail staffers, backs up the business inside the boundaries.

"These staffers even manage their supervisors with money to ensure a smooth supply chain."

He suggested stronger surveillance, both technologically and manually, like installing CCTV cameras; conducting random searches; and monitoring the movements of suspicious officials' movement to stop drug trade inside prisons.

A state-run intelligence agency in a report stated that narcotics traders used innovative techniques to supply drugs inside the jail.

While some wrap the drugs in small packets and hide them inside shoes, sandals, shirt collars or even jewelry, others, more recently, have been making use of residents living near the jail boundaries.

"Once a deal is struck between a dishonest jail staffer and an inmate, the residents [living near the jail], upon instructions from the traders, throw the packets of drugs inside from the other side of the jail boundary at specifically given times," a high official of the agency said, requesting anonymity.

He added that the authorities concerned have been alerted to increase surveillance in this regard.

Subrata Kumar Bala, superintendent of Kashimpur High-Security Jail, admitted there was a residence near the jail boundary from where traders throw in drugs. 

"We have strict vigilance and monitoring inside the jail complex. But we can't ensure security outside the boundary too.

"We have, however, written to the authorities concerned to beef up security around the jail and police and Rab have already increased their patrol after that."