Prison wardens supply inmates with steroids, police probe shows

Prague, Feb 26 (CTK) - The Czech GIBS police inspection has uncovered a distribution network with banned substances, mostly anabolic steroids, in the Mirov prison, north Moravia, GIBS spokeswoman Radka Sandorova told CTK yesterday.

The detectives have detained eight persons and levelled six charges, Sandorova said about the raid in one of the tight security prisons, adding that the group had been involved in trading in drugs and anabolic steroids.

At the weekend, the police started a search in the Mirov prison following an investigation that revealed a distribution network in the correctional facility, Sandorova said.

"It was delivering for money banned substances for a long time. With the prisoners' help, it distributed them among the convicts," she added.

The system was elaborate, but no details can be disclosed for tactical reasons, Sandorova said.

While drug trading in prisons poses a long-standing problem, the GIBS never came across trading in anabolic steroids, Sandorova said.

The demand may be connected with sports activities pursued in the prisons, prison authority spokesman Robert Kacer said.

There is a gym with barbells and bodybuilding equipment in the prison.

The detectives have questioned a number of persons and carried out tens of home searches, Sandorova said, adding that they had managed to collect a great deal of evidence such as bank statements.

The police officers have levelled bribery and drug abuse charges against the persons in question, while the wardens will also face abuse of power charges.

"The action was being prepared for almost a year," GIBS head Ivan Bilek told Czech Television (CT).

It cannot be ruled out that along with the eight detained persons, more were involved in the crime, Bilek said.

The GIBS has repeatedly uncovered drug smuggling and addiction in prisons.

Mirov is a tight security prisons in which criminals who committed extremely serious crime such as mass murderers serve their sentences. There are also dangerous repeat criminals and the convicts who escaped from other prisons and were caught.