18 Magilligan visitor smuggler arrests

The amount of arrests rose from three in 2007/8 to four in 2008/9 before falling back to three in 2009/10 and spiking to eight last year.

In the first six months of 2011/12 there were no arrests.

Justice Minister David Ford explained that not all prison visitors arrested for attempting to smuggle in banned substances to prisoners will have been prosecuted.

“Visitors may have been cautioned, proceeded against by summons or charged for offences under the Misuse of Drugs Act. These prosecutions, if they arose, could not necessarily be linked specifically to attempts to smuggle banned substances into prison,” he stated.

“The process of prosecution cuts across PSNI, the Courts and the Public Prosecution Service, the Northern Ireland Prison Service does not hold information on the number, if any, of actual convictions,” he added.