French police launch jail hunt for Chinese language-made miniature telephones

[ad_1] Hugh Schofield Paris correspondent

<img sizes="(min-width: 1280px) 50vw, (min-width: 1008px) 66vw, 96vw" srcset="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/240/cpsprodpb/7d41/live/82aafd30-3582-11f0-9b2c-138cad92aeb3.jpg.webp 240w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/7d41/live/82aafd30-3582-11f0-9b2c-138cad92aeb3.jpg.webp 320w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/7d41/live/82aafd30-3582-11f0-9b2c-138cad92aeb3.jpg.webp 480w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/7d41/live/82aafd30-3582-11f0-9b2c-138cad92aeb3.jpg.webp 640w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/7d41/live/82aafd30-3582-11f0-9b2c-138cad92aeb3.jpg.webp 800w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/7d41/live/82aafd30-3582-11f0-9b2c-138cad92aeb3.jpg.webp 1024w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cpsprodpb/7d41/live/82aafd30-3582-11f0-9b2c-138cad92aeb3.jpg.webp 1536w" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/7d41/live/82aafd30-3582-11f0-9b2c-138cad92aeb3.jpg.webp" loading="eager" alt="FRENCH PROSECUTOR'S OFFICE Picture combination shows a model of the tiny phone next to a cigarette lighter" class="sc-4abb68ca-0 ldLcJe"/> FRENCH PROSECUTOR'S OFFICE The contraband telephones are the scale of a cigarette lighter

French authorities have launched a nationwide hunt for hundreds of tiny Chinese language-made telephones utilized by convicts to proceed legal actions from inside jail.

The telephones, no greater than a cigarette-lighter, are virtually solely plastic, and have a fame for being nearly invisible to steel detectors.

Beneath Operation Jail Break, introduced on Tuesday by the cyber crime department of the Paris prosecutor's workplace, jail officers have been authorised to conduct searches in 500 cells in 66 detention centres.

In accordance with Le Monde newspaper, the units have been nicknamed "suppositories" by jail inmates due to their ease of concealment.

"Investigations have established that a few of these telephones have been used to commit crimes from inside detention, together with medication trafficking, racketeering, arson and tried homicide," a press release from the prosecutor's workplace stated.

The French provider of the units – an organization referred to as Oportik – has been stopped from buying and selling and three employees members arrested. It's believed to have bought about 5,000 of the telephones, the most affordable of which price simply €20 (£16.84).

<img sizes="(min-width: 1280px) 50vw, (min-width: 1008px) 66vw, 96vw" srcset="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/240/cpsprodpb/16f2/live/3dbd0950-3575-11f0-a288-d583f745f4b6.png.webp 240w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/16f2/live/3dbd0950-3575-11f0-a288-d583f745f4b6.png.webp 320w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/16f2/live/3dbd0950-3575-11f0-a288-d583f745f4b6.png.webp 480w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/16f2/live/3dbd0950-3575-11f0-a288-d583f745f4b6.png.webp 640w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/16f2/live/3dbd0950-3575-11f0-a288-d583f745f4b6.png.webp 800w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/16f2/live/3dbd0950-3575-11f0-a288-d583f745f4b6.png.webp 1024w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cpsprodpb/16f2/live/3dbd0950-3575-11f0-a288-d583f745f4b6.png.webp 1536w" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/16f2/live/3dbd0950-3575-11f0-a288-d583f745f4b6.png.webp" loading="lazy" alt="EPA The doors of cells inside the Vendin-le-Vieil prison in northern France as seen on 14/5/2025" class="sc-4abb68ca-0 ldLcJe"/> EPA Authorities stated the smuggled telephones had been facilitating crime from behind bars

France's Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin has pledged to crack down on drug gangs and different legal organisations, whose leaders he stated are too usually in a position to proceed to conduct working even after being jailed.

In 2024 some 40,000 cellphones have been confiscated in prisons. Typical units are projected over jail partitions or dropped by drones. Others are smuggled in by corrupt jail employees. Cellphone-jamming is deployed in some jails, however there are doubts about its efficacity.

Related mini-phones are manufactured in massive numbers in China, in accordance with Le Monde. Whereas they're themselves completely authorized in France, it's a crime to produce a prisoner with a telephone.

The French prosecutor's workplace stated it had handed data on the way it traced the Oportik telephones to the EU's judicial cooperation company Eurojust, in order that different international locations can conduct comparable clampdowns.

<img sizes="(min-width: 1280px) 50vw, (min-width: 1008px) 66vw, 96vw" srcset="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/240/cpsprodpb/3978/live/67b24ef0-3575-11f0-8a3d-319afdf0f64c.png.webp 240w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/3978/live/67b24ef0-3575-11f0-8a3d-319afdf0f64c.png.webp 320w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/3978/live/67b24ef0-3575-11f0-8a3d-319afdf0f64c.png.webp 480w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/3978/live/67b24ef0-3575-11f0-8a3d-319afdf0f64c.png.webp 640w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/3978/live/67b24ef0-3575-11f0-8a3d-319afdf0f64c.png.webp 800w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/3978/live/67b24ef0-3575-11f0-8a3d-319afdf0f64c.png.webp 1024w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cpsprodpb/3978/live/67b24ef0-3575-11f0-8a3d-319afdf0f64c.png.webp 1536w" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/3978/live/67b24ef0-3575-11f0-8a3d-319afdf0f64c.png.webp" loading="lazy" alt="EPA Exterior shot of the Vendin-le-Vieil prison in northern France shows its guard watchtower and high walls and power lines." class="sc-4abb68ca-0 ldLcJe"/> EPA French authorities have been below strain to tighten safety in prisons