Foiled: Plan to smuggle steroids into Wolverhampton jail in Ribena cartons
A plot to smuggle anabolic steroids hidden in Ribena cartons into Featherstone Prison was foiled by prison staff and police.
Stafford Crown Court heard how jail staff discovered the cartons containing hundreds of tablets outside the gates.
In a bid to catch those responsible, police and prison workers replaced the drugs-filled drinks cartons with dummy packages and left them as a trap.
They then watched on CCTV as a BMW backed up to the prison and the driver collected the haul.
A week later, the same car - driven by Tahir Ali - was back at Featherstone. Tahir was there to collect his brother, Nahim Ali, who was being released from custody.
However, officials stopped the BMW and both brothers were arrested, said Mr Lee Egan, prosecuting during last week's hearing.
Tahir, aged 40, of Clodeshall Road, Alum Rock, Birmingham, and his Nahim, aged 34, of College Road, Alum Rock, both admitted a charge of conspiracy to supply class C drugs in February last year.
Judge Mark Eades gave them both bail for sentencing at a later date.
The judge heard the plot was rumbled from a phone call made by Nahim while he was still in custody serving a two-year sentence for offences under the Proceeds of Crime Act.
Mr Egan said the phone call, on February 19 last year, was to Tahir, giving explicit instructions about the packaging of the drugs, which were to be thrown into the prison.
About 10.50pm the same night, a white van was seen reversing towards the prison's works entrance gates, monitored on CCTV by prison staff. The van drove off before its registration number could be taken but a search of the area revealed three Ribena cartons containing drugs.
They included 399 tablets of oxymetholone and 310 tablets of oxandrolone, both powerful anabolic steroids; 49 tablets of buprenorphine, a strong pain killer sometimes used as a heroin substitute; 30ml of testosterone; and 30ml of nandrolone, a steroid favoured by body builders.
Dummy cartons were prepared and left in place. On February 20, another phone call was made by Nahim to his brother, telling him something had gone wrong. The same night, the dummy packages were collected by the driver of the BMW. The brothers were arrested on February 27 when Tahir went to collect Nahim from Featherstone in the BMW.
