Twenty people have been arrested and charged following Operation Jasper, a ten-month investigation by the Police National Organised Crime Group into alleged corruption at three of the country’s largest prisons.
Police executed twenty-five search warrants across Auckland, Waikato and the Bay of Plenty this week, with the arrests centred on the Mt Eden Corrections Facility and the Auckland South Correctional Facility at Wiri. Those charged include nine Corrections officers from Mt Eden, one Corrections officer from Spring Hill, five reintegration officers employed by Serco at Wiri and five members of the public.
One hundred and eight charges have been laid in total, ranging from corruptly accepting and offering bribes through to conspiring to supply methamphetamine and cannabis to prisoners, and conspiring to obstruct justice by deleting evidence and coordinating false statements. The corruption and bribery charges are serious enough that they required the consent of the Attorney-General to proceed.
How the smuggling allegedly worked
The investigation began in July last year when officers started looking at sentenced and remand prisoners at Mt Eden who appeared to be coordinating drug importation and distribution from inside the jail. The trail led police to staff who were allegedly being paid in cash to bring mobile phones, drugs and tobacco through the gate.
Detective Inspector Colin Parmenter from the National Organised Crime Group said the phones were the key piece. “Police believe the phones were used by prisoners to continue drug importation and distribution activities from within the Mt Eden facility,” he said.
The investigation later widened to take in the Serco-run Auckland South Correctional Facility at Wiri, after evidence pointed to several reintegration officers there allegedly engaging in similar conduct, and to Spring Hill in the Waikato, where one Corrections officer was arrested.
Largest operation of its kind
Corrections Association of New Zealand president Floyd du Plessis said the scale of the arrests was unprecedented. “Unfortunately this is the largest operation we’ve seen of this kind,” he said.
Du Plessis said the union had been raising concerns for some time about pressure being placed on frontline staff. “For quite some time… we’ve been asking for additional training, awareness, and ramping up protections around entry and exit out of the prison to help prevent these things from happening.”
He said attempts to influence officers were a constant feature of the job. “On a regular basis, there are attempts by these groups to influence staff, manipulate staff, all those from a very minor level to a high level,” he said, adding that some officers had been visited at home by associates of prisoners.
Du Plessis was careful to put the arrests in context against a workforce of thousands. “It’s 14 staff out of thousands… for the most part, staff around the country do a phenomenally good job,” he said.
Corrections and Serco respond
Corrections chief executive Rachel Leota said the department was cooperating fully with police and that the conduct alleged was the opposite of what the agency stood for. “Staff integrity is a top priority for me,” she said. Corrections noted that the overwhelming majority of its eleven thousand staff act with integrity, and pointed to its recruitment vetting and integrity training as the front line against this kind of conduct.
Serco, which runs the Wiri facility under contract, said it took all forms of criminal behaviour extremely seriously and had assisted police with inquiries.
Corrections and Police Minister Mark Mitchell welcomed the arrests and said any officer who crossed the line had to expect to be caught and prosecuted.
Where it goes from here
All twenty people charged are due to appear in the Auckland District Court. The Crown will need the Attorney-General’s formal sign-off to proceed with the bribery and corruption counts, a step reserved for cases involving public officials. Further charges have not been ruled out as the file works its way through the courts.
What do you make of the scale of Operation Jasper, and do you think frontline Corrections staff are being properly supported against this kind of pressure? Drop a comment below.
This article was written by AI, briefed to report the facts, hopefully without some of the bias people bring to the job 🙂
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