Heilbronn (dpa/lsw) – drug raid in prison: After the arrest of an employee of the Heilbronn correctional facility, several cells in the building and private apartments were searched on Friday. A total of 33 suspects are being investigated, including the alleged gang members, suppliers, buyers and other parties involved in the business, the public prosecutor said.

The arrested JVA official is said to have been bribed so that doping and narcotics could be smuggled into the facility since the middle of last year. “There are currently no indications that other prison staff are involved,” said a spokesman for the public prosecutor’s office.

The system was sophisticated: gang members are said to have taken the orders behind the prison walls and distributed the contraband around the prison, while others collected the money from relatives of the incarcerated customers. “As soon as the incoming payment was reported to the imprisoned gang members, they handed over the ordered substances to the buyers,” said the public prosecutor’s office and the police in Heilbronn. Smugglers are said to have been the arrested man and therapy dropouts or new prisoners who were able to smuggle in the goods as previously swallowed body packs.

According to the public prosecutor, the Heilbronn prison had become suspicious in February 2022 after the use of a drug dog and drug scanner. Then, among other things, undercover investigations were carried out in order to be able to get a better picture of the structures of the gang, the supply chains and the flow of money.