A batch of drugs that resulted in at least 11 prisoners suffering overdoses at Portlaoise Prison is suspected of having been smuggled into the prison by a well-known gangland figure.
The Irish Times has learned that all of the prisoners rushed to hospital after overdosing have since recovered, been discharged from hospital and returned to custody.
While there was serious concern for the health of one man, who remained in intensive care at the Midlands Regional Hospital, Portlaoise until Wednesday night, he was discharged on Thursday afternoon. He was the last of the men to be returned to the prison, where the conditions of those affected are to be monitored.
An investigation into the source of the drugs, and how they were smuggled into the maximum security facility, is being carried out by An Garda Síochána. Sources said gardaí would interview the men who needed hospital treatment as they believed they had clear knowledge of how the drugs were smuggled on to the jail’s C Wing.
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A significant proportion of the drugs seized in Irish prisons are smuggled in by prisoners who have swallowed narcotics wrapped in plastic, sometimes in large sealed pellets, or who have used other methods to get them into their bodies.
Some prisoners who are taken from jails for hospital or court appointments, or who are granted short periods of release for compassionate reasons, often find ways to take receipt of drugs to bring back into the prison setting.
Others are pressured by more violent or powerful prisoners to agree to be secretly passed a parcel of drugs while outside the prison setting for smuggling back into jails. In some cases, when experienced criminals are due before the courts, and expect to be jailed on the day, they will ingest them with a view to passing and retrieving them once inside a prison.
The Garda inquiry is focused on identifying which prisoners on C Wing were recently granted periods of release, which can be as short as a number of hours. One of the prisoners who fell ill falls into that group and gardaí expect to be in a position to interview him, and others, shortly.
A quantity of the drug the men are believed to have consumed before they fell ill on Tuesday was found in the jail and has been sent for testing. Gardaí suspect it contained a quantity of highly potent synthetic opioids, bringing about overdose symptoms in the group of men very soon after they consumed it.
In reply to queries about the investigation into the prisoners who overdosed and their current status, as well as the investigation under way, the Irish Prison Service it “does not comment on individual prisoner cases”.
Garda headquarters confirmed an investigation into how the drugs were sourced and brought into Portlaoise Prison was under way. “An Garda Síochána is working closely with the Irish Prison Service, the Health Service Executive and the National Drug Treatment Centre on this matter.”
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