More than 200 police and military officers recovered nearly 70 knives, seven tasers and 26 packs of cards in a raid of Rayong Prison.
The Rayong Internal Security Operations Command organized the Feb. 6 inspection, which also used volunteers to toss jail cells looking for guns, weapons, drugs and telephones. None were found.
Contraband was limited to 69 kitchen-style knives, as well as some fermented fruit that could be used to brew homemade alcohol.
Rayong Gov. Wichit Chatpaisit said the raid proved that measures taken by Rayong prison administrators in October to tighten security at the facility have worked. More renovations and upgrades are in progress.
Officials use a dog to sniff out drugs at Rayong prison. So far, they didn’t find any, but did find a cache of shivs.
Rayong prison long has been a key link in the provinces drug problem. Numerous drug dealers arrested over the past several years have either worked directly for, or in tandem with, incarcerated drug kingpins who continued to operate from behind bars.
With funds from the Office of Narcotics Control Board, the prison has installed perimeter cameras to thwart people from throwing packages of contraband over fences. Officials also cut off mobile telephone service around the prison and are disabling wireless Internet services.
Wichit said the result has been a decrease in illicit activity stemming from the increasingly isolated prison.
