A gang of four from the Black Country including a serving prison custody officer conspired to smuggle cannabis and tobacco into HMP Birmingham
A corrupt prison officer worked with three others – including her prisoner boyfriend – to smuggle items into Birmingham’s prison.
Carla Moskot-Brettell, a prison custody officer at HMP Hewell, near Redditch in Worcestershire, led co-ordinated efforts to smuggle items including cannabis and tobacco into HMP Birmingham.
Moskot-Brettell, 35, conspired with her partner, Darren Oakes, who was a serving prisoner within the Winson Green lock-up, to get the illicit items behind bars.
The couple worked with Louise Docker and Patricia Bucknell, also from the Black Country, to prepare and wrap cannabis in cling film.
It was then placed inside a surgical glove that Moskot-Brettell had obtained from the prison she worked at. The packages were laced with spices in an effort to confuse the scent of search dogs deployed at the prison. And they were then smuggled into the jail by Bucknell during social visits with Oakes.
Once inside the prison, the packages were placed inside food orders from the social visits canteen.
They were then ingested by Oakes, who would later make himself vomit in his cell to bring the packages back up so he could supply them to his fellow inmates.
The plot was uncovered following an investigation by West Midlands Police ’s ROCU (Regional Organised Crime Unit) into the behaviour of Moskot-Brettell.
