Hugh Scofield
Paris correspondent
French prosecutor’s office
Smuggling mobile phones are the size of cigarette lighters
French authorities have launched a national hunt for thousands of small Chinese-made phones that prisoners use to continue their criminal activities from within the prison.
Phones that are not bigger than light cigarettes have a reputation for being almost completely plastic and virtually invisible to metal detectors.
Under prison breaks announced Tuesday by the Cybercrime Branch of the Paris Prosecutor’s Office, prison officials are permitted to conduct searches in 500 cells at 66 detention centres.
According to the Le Monde newspaper, the device was called “sappropriate” by prison prisoners because of its ease of concealment.
“The investigation has established that some of these calls were used to commit crimes from internal detention, including drug trafficking, assault, arson, attempted murder,” a statement from the prosecutor’s office said.
Devices’ French supplier – a company called Oportik – has stopped trading and three staff members have been arrested. It is believed that it sold around 5,000 mobile phones, the cheapest of which costs just 20 euros (£16.84).
EPA
Authorities said smuggled phones were promoting crime from behind bars
French Justice Minister Gerald Dalman has pledged to crack down on drug groups and other criminal organizations.
In 2024, approximately 40,000 mobile phones were confiscated in prison. Traditional devices are projected onto prison walls or dropped by drones. Others are smuggled by corrupt prison staff. Phone Yamming has been deployed in several prisons, but its efficiency is questionable.
According to Le Monde, similar miniphones are manufactured in large quantities in China. They are completely legal in France, but supplying telephones to prisoners is a crime.
The French prosecutor’s office said it had passed information on how it followed Oportik’s call to Eurojust, the EU’s judicial cooperation agency, to allow other countries to set similar deadlines.
EPA
French authorities are under pressure to increase security in prisons
