EAVESDROPPING UNCOVERS EXTENT OF P IN MT EDEN

Bugged Conversations With A Prisoner Have Revealed The Extent Of The
Drug P In Mt Eden Prison.

The comments, made during a secretly taped cellphone conversation the
prisoner had while serving time inside the jail in 2002, were played
to an Auckland District Court jury during a major drugs trial this
week.

In it the prisoner seems to gloat about the amount of P in the prison
and even says a visitor had obtained drugs while at Mt Eden.

The conversation was between Dwayne Allan Marsh, who was inside the
prison, and Tony Jacomb. Both were charged as a result of a long-term
police operation.

Marsh had said: "There's more P in here than anywhere."

Jacomb had pleaded guilty to a number of charges related to selling
and manufacturing methamphetamine while a jury yesterday could not
reach a verdict on whether Marsh had sold methamphetamine.

The officer in charge of the operation, Detective Sergeant Darryl
Brazier, said police believed at the time that were readily available
there, which was of concern.

It had been revealed that one of the people connected to the case was
distributing 6g a week of P inside the jail. "That's $6,000 worth
every week," he said.

Corrections refused to comment on the conversation.

But in September last year, when former TV3 news reader Darren
McDonald was sentenced on drugs charges, Justice Marion Frater said
his sentence should be deferred given his high profile and "the
acknowledged availability" of drugs in prison.

National's law and order spokesman Tony Ryall said there was nothing
to suggest anything had changed in the last two years in respect to
the amount of drugs in jail.