The Justice Ministry has seized more than 6,000 mobile phones and over 20,000 methamphetamine pills during a six-month crackdown in prisons.
At least eight prison officials have also been dismissed for smuggling illegal items into prisons, Chanchao Chaiyanukit, deputy permanent secretary for justice, said Wednesday.
Although the ministry had put in place strict measures to prevent illegal items getting into prisons, many inmates managed to evade inspections with the help of jail officials and prison chiefs.
A large number of items were confiscated during the crackdown from June 9 to Dec 9, he said. They included 6,703 mobile phones, 24,767 speed pills, 2,839 grammes of crystal methamphetamine and six grammes of marijuana, according to Mr Chanchao.
Chamaiphon Kaeokamnoet, an official from Khao Bin Prison, said warders have uncovered a variety of tricks which inmates use to get their hands on mobile phones.
One of the tricks is to use drones, or unmanned aircraft, to drop mobile phones into prison compounds. Some illegal items have also been shot over prison walls with bows or hurled into the prison compounds with fishing rods, she said.
Some inmates ask their friends to carry the phones for them, and stay in touch with callers with the aid of a hands-free set attached to a long lead. If a call comes in, the inmate will take the call by talking on his hands-free set through the phone which is held by his friend in a different cell.
In one case, one inmate phone owner who placed a drugs order was on the fourth floor, and his friend holding the phone on the first. The hands-free cable cable was up to 200m long and concealed in a sewer pipe.
A mobile phone in prison can fetch up to as much as 2 million baht, and air time costs 2,000 baht a minute at Khao Bin prison in Ratchaburi.
The eight dismissed officials were allegedly involved in smuggling drugs into the prison. One was alleged to have helped inmates get mobile phones.
The ministry has also transferred 59 jail chiefs who were suspected of involvement in smuggling illegal items, Mr Chanchao said.