More phones found as jail crackdown continues

Seventy-three DVD players and 30 music player units were found in the prison, apart from 30 mobile handsets, which Corrections Department Suchart Wonganantachai said were smuggled into the prison. He placed the blame on prison guards – but said relevant officials and chiefs of each detention area involved would also be held responsible.
Five mobile phones had their SIM cards locked by inmates and are undergoing the first scrutiny, he said. Seven prisons, out of a total 143 across the country, have been declared ‘white prisons’ - those undergoing reform or are regarded as clean after a series of thorough searches - under a department campaign following the crackdown. Suchart did not name the facilities.
The four-hour search at the maximum security prison is part of a crackdown on in-prison drug dealing by inmates with the help of corrupt prison guards. The search, involving a 600-strong force of policemen assisting 150 prison guards, also found 200 inmates selected randomly from a thousand tested positive for drug use.
A search at a Samut Sakhon prison yesterday found four mobile phones, and an ‘ice’-consuming device. A 230-strong force conducted the dawn raid,which also found eight SIM cards and homemade weapons, while 32 inmates tested positive for drug use.
Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister Chalerm Yoobamrung said a list of most- wanted 100 drug dealers would soon be made public –and he paraded a key suspect arrested with a Bt500,000 bounty on his head.
Chalerm said a large number of murders were taking place as drug dealers try to silence each other. Police officers were not involved and were unable to stop them. He did not elaborate.
At a police press conference, Chalerm paraded a suspect, Shinnawas Naitreemit, listed on the 25-top wanted file. His arrest resulted from the involvement  of a suspect, Manop Chaichana, arrested in June last year with 2 million amphetamine tablets and 60 bars of heroin in his possession.