Jailguards smuggle drugs, cellphones inside city jail?

CEBU - Despite the regular “Operation Greyhound” to confiscate the contrabands that were able to reach the inmates, some people still manage to smuggle illegal drugs and even cellphones into the new Cebu City Jail in Kalunasan.

Worse, information gathered from jail officials and visitors point to jail guards as the ones who smuggle these goods inside the facility.

An informer who constantly visits the new city jail told The Freeman that almost everyday, jail guards sell cellphones to the inmates at overpriced cost.

City jail warden Efren Nemeño admitted that despite their weekly Operation Greyhound, drugs and cellphones still continue to proliferate inside the jail as evidenced by the things they confiscate from inmates.

Nemeño said five jail guards are now being investigated by the regional office of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology for alleged smuggling of cellular phones to the prisoners.

He said that it is the jail’s policy that even jail guards are not allowed to bring their cellphones beyond the gate and he had assigned his trusted personnel to frisk the entering jail guards.

The Freeman informer said that a P6,000-worth of cellphone is being sold by jailguards to the prisoners at P8,000.

“Mao na ang negosyo sa mga gwardya diha sa city jail. Duna man g’yoy mga kwartahan nga priso nga magpapalit. Kon ang kabanayan sa priso ang magdala, ang gwardya bayran lang sa pagtunol nila sa cellphone ngadto sa priso,” the informant said.

While the jail warden did not discount the possibility that the jail guards themselves are the ones behind the illegal activity, he said it could be also possible that the cellphones were inserted into a woman visitor’s genital.

“Ang information nga akong nadawat nga ang cellphone masulod man g’yod na sa genital sa babaye. Lisud man sab og ato na lang g’yong hilngon pag-ayo ang ilang private parts,” Nemeño said.

The alleged smuggling of cellphones into the jail facility became a hot topic after it was discovered that convicted robber Rey Torres is keeping a cellphone while in detention.

But Torres allegedly helped the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in tracking down a suspected drug peddler from Mindanao by allowing himself to be used by authorities in negotiating with the drug peddlers from Marawi City.

“Nganong naa ma’y cellphone si Rey Torres? Gidili man unta ang pagtinil og cellphones sa mga priso?” one of the PDEA agents asked.

Nemeño said that last Thursday, five cellphones and a few small packs of shabu were confiscated by the jailguards during an Operation Greyhound.

All confiscated cell phones were turned over to the BJMP-7 after nobody from the inmates had claimed ownership over them.

The jail manual provides that prisoners are not allowed to possess cellphones while in detention due to security reasons. –Rene U. Borromeo/WAB (THE FREEMAN)