Jail drug ODs alarm prosecutor
The deaths of four prisoners so far this year as a result of drug abuse in the country’s largest prison, Korydallos, has prompted an Athens prosecutor to call for an investigation into whether prison authorities are turning a blind eye to drugs entering the jail. Prosecutor Grigoris Peponis has requested that the police branch in Piraeus assess whether police who escort prisoners leaving or entering the prison for legal or medical reasons are conducting sufficient searches. «Depite authorities admitting to the problem, as well as the measures taken by the police, the problem continues to grow,» Peponis said in a report sent to the Piraeus police. According to the prosecutor, drugs also reach prisoners after accomplices throw them «drug balls,» small packages containing narcotics, from outside the prison wall. In the last 11 months, 48 such incidents were recorded by prison authorities. Among the measures the prosecutor has called for are more patrols of Korydallos’s perimeter and more thorough checks of prisoners returning to the jail.
