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<\/p>\nA prison officer who was the ringleader of a smuggling gang supply inmates with\u00a0 with drugs, weapons and mobile phones stashed in cereal boxes has been jailed.<\/p>\n
Martin Mills, 34, was caught red-handed trying to smuggle prohibited items into HMP Hewell that were hidden in packs of Weetabix and Ready Brek.<\/p>\n
A court heard he was stopped as he arrived for work at the category B jail near Redditch, Worcestershire, after prison bosses became suspicious in April 2018.<\/p>\n
Detectives were able to link several other people to the smuggling ring, including prisoners housed on the block Mills worked on.<\/p>\n
Family members of the lags would pay money into Mills’ bank account and he would then take the contraband to work for the prisoners to sell on inside.<\/p>\n
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Martin Mills, 34, was caught red-handed trying to smuggle prohibited items into HMP Hewell<\/p>\n
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The items included drugs and mobile phones. They were smuggled into the jail in cereal boxes<\/p>\n
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Mills was an officer at\u00a0HMP Hewell (pictured), a category B jail near\u00a0Redditch, Worcestershire\u00a0<\/p>\n
Photos show how drugs, phones, SIM cards, tobacco, Rizlas, wads of cash and even a knife were recovered as part of the operation.<\/p>\n
Mills, of Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, was jailed for four years after pleading guilty to smuggling drugs and “list B” items (mobile phones and associated equipment).<\/p>\n
Mills was sentenced at Worcester Crown Court alongside eight other people for conspiracy to bring, throw and convey prohibited items in to the prison.<\/p>\n
Iain Maclachlan-Sim, 34, of Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, and Hamza Mohumed, 32, of Coventry, were both jailed for four years.<\/p>\n
Tony Graham Barrett, 28, of Nuneaton, Warwickshire, was caged for three years and two months while David Ward, 53, of Coventry, was sentenced to 21 months.<\/p>\n
Jy Kennedy, 30, of Leamington Spa, received a seven month suspended sentence and given a \u00a3250 fine..<\/p>\n
Isiah Gill, 34, of Birmingham, was sentenced to 10 months, suspended for 12 months and ordered to undertake 80 hours of unpaid work.<\/p>\n
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Among the other items smuggled into prison include a knife, wads of cash and phones\u00a0<\/p>\n
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David Ward (left), 53 and from Coventry, was sentenced to one year and nine months.\u00a0Tony Barrett (right), 28 and from Nuneaton was jailed for three years and two months<\/p>\n
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Hamza Mohumed, 32, from Coventry was jailed for four years for the smuggling operation<\/p>\n
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Alongside Mills, a further eight other people were sentenced for their roles in running the smuggling ring at HMP Hewell (pictured<\/p>\n
Leanne Miles, 32, of Coventry, was sentenced to 12 months, suspended for a year.<\/p>\n
Ann Marie Sim, 52, of Leamington Spa, received a six month sentence, suspended for 12 months.<\/p>\n
Detective Constable Claire Masters, of West Mercia Police, said: ‘This has been a complicated and long-running investigation and I’m pleased that all those involved have now been brought to justice.<\/p>\n
‘Prisons should be a place of safety and the actions of Mills and his accomplices threatened that.<\/p>\n
‘Drugs have no place in prison and hinder the rehabilitation of those who are there, often when they are at their most vulnerable.<\/p>\n
‘I hope these sentences show that we take all reports of crime seriously, regardless of who commits them and where they took place.’<\/p>\n