Cameras usually used by bomb disposal teams looking for explosives are being introduced in jails to find hidden mobile phones that gardaí fear are being used by inmates to conduct drug deals and serious gun crime on the outside.
A pilot of the new technology has already begun. The cameras will also be used to find ingeniously concealed drugs as part of Irish Prison Service efforts to introduce a drug-free culture across the prison system.
Gardaí are anxious that every means available is used to find mobile phones which they believe have been used to organise crimes up to and including murder.
In May 2005 Mark Byrne (31), Tallaght, Dublin, was shot dead just moments after walking out of the main gates of Mountjoy Prison for a period of day release.
Gardaí believe the murderer, who had been embroiled in a personal dispute with Byrne, was informed of his victim's movements via a smuggled mobile phone by an inmate in the prison.
Senior officers suspect that in a number of other cases gangland killings have been ordered by prisoners in jail via mobiles. Although inmates are allowed telephone calls by prison authorities, these are monitored.
Mobiles have for years been thrown to inmates by arrangement over the perimeter walls into prison exercise yards. Some have also been concealed internally by criminals on committal or by those returning after periods of temporary release. Drugs enter the prisons in the same way.
Once they have been smuggled in they are concealed in cells and other areas. Some stashes have been found wrapped in plastic in the U-bends of toilets and down drain holes. However, tiny cameras that can be guided down water pipes and into other hard to search places are now being introduced by the prison service.
The Department of Justice has confirmed that the new technology has already been tested. The results have not been released but indicate that the new technologies "will be a valuable asset in this area", according to the department.
Senior gardaí believe the effect of imprisoning some gangland figures has in the past been negated by the role they continue to play in serious criminality via smuggled mobiles. "Some guys have definitely been able to keep a close control on things, particularly during a short sentence," said one informed source.
Minister for Justice Michael McDowell said in the Dáil last month he was aware of attempts by inmates to conduct criminality via smuggled telephones.
