Tag Archive for: jail

Prison officer who helped smuggle cocaine into convicted murderer’s cell facing jail time


Prison officer, 31, who helped smuggle cocaine and a mobile phone into convicted murderer’s cell at maximum-security jail after ‘forming a close relationship’ is now facing time behind bars herself

  • Heather McKenzie was working at HMP Shotts when she teamed up with convicted murderer Zak Malavin to supply drugs to inmates
  • McKenzie will be sentenced at the High Court in Glasgow on February 23

A prison officer is facing time behind bars after helping to smuggle cocaine into one of Scotland’s most notorious maximum-security jails.

Heather McKenzie was working at HMP Shotts – home to some of the country’s most hardened criminals – when she teamed up with convicted murderer Zak Malavin to supply drugs to inmates.

Prison officials and police started an investigation after noticing a significant rise in the quantities of drugs being found in the jail – and receiving a tip-off about possible staff corruption.

Intelligence suggested McKenzie, 31, was illegally bringing drugs and mobile phones into the prison.

Heather McKenzie (pictured) was working at HMP Shotts – home to some of the country’s most hardened criminals – when she teamed up with a convicted murderer

Heather McKenzie (pictured) was working at HMP Shotts – home to some of the country’s most hardened criminals – when she teamed up with a convicted murderer

Zak Malavin who is serving life for murdering a man in a park by attacking him with a sword, was found to have an iPhone, 1.45g of cocaine and a sleeping pill in his cell

Zak Malavin who is serving life for murdering a man in a park by attacking him with a sword, was found to have an iPhone, 1.45g of cocaine and a sleeping pill in his cell

Malavin, serving life for murdering a man in a park by attacking him with a sword, was found to have an iPhone, 1.45g of cocaine and a sleeping pill in his cell when officers searched it in May 2020.

A search the following month uncovered two knotted bags containing a further 5.7g of cocaine, while data on the iPhone revealed texts and calls to McKenzie.

Police later raided McKenzie’s home in Forth, Lanarkshire, and arrested her after finding £2,500 in cash, mobile phones, syringes and trenbolone – a powerful steroid – as well as traces of cocaine and 28g of another drug, benzocaine.

An iPhone found by police had a missed WhatsApp call from a contact named ‘Zak’….

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Hacker who stole Ed Sheeran’s unreleased music to sell for crypto gets 18-month jail term in the UK


A hacker who illegally accessed cloud-based accounts of 89 artists — including Ed Sheeran and Lil Uzi Vert — and sold their unreleased music on the dark web in exchange for cryptocurrency was sentenced to 18 months in jail.

Adrian Kwiatkowski of Hampton Road, Ipswich, was found guilty of obtaining unreleased and unfinished material from the said accounts and made £131,000 ($148,000), according to the City of London Police on Friday (October 21).

The 23-year-old hacker pleaded guilty to 14 copyright offenses, three counts of computer misuse and three offences under the Proceeds of Crime Act at the Ipswich Magistrates Court on August 27.

Most recently, he was sentenced to 18 months in jail at Ipswich Crown Court.

“Kwiatkowski was a highly skilled individual who unfortunately saw potential in using his abilities unlawfully. Not only did he cause several artists and their production companies significant financial harm, he deprived them of the ability to release their own work,” Detective Constable Daryl Fryatt from City of London Police’s Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU) said.

Added Detective Constable Fryatt: “This investigation is an excellent example of the way PIPCU and its partner agencies work across international borders to identify those involved in criminal activity. Kwiatkowski will now face the consequences of his actions, and I hope this result will also make his customers refrain from purchasing illegal content again.”

The sentence marks the culmination of a yearslong investigation into Kwiatkowski, which began when the management companies of several musicians reported that the hacker, known online as Spirdark, gained access to a series of accounts and sold unreleased music online.

The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office launched the investigation in 2019. The probe managed to track Spirdark’s cryptocurrency account, as well as the IP address of the device used to hack one of the accounts as his home address.

Kwiatkowski was then arrested on September 12, 2019 following further investigation and seven of his devices including a hard drive containing 1,263 unreleased songs by 89 artists were uncovered. About £64,000 worth of Bitcoin was also…

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Post-RDX recovery: Punjab’s Burail jail to amp up security, to procure 45 CCTVs, UVSS


AMIDST REPORTS of possible terrorist attacks on certain jails in Punjab, the Model Jail, Burail administration has started taking safety measures to make jail security full proof.

The administration has decided to install at least 45 high resolution CCTV cameras alongside the entire boundary wall of the jail, spreading over 14 acres of land. There is also a plan to install Under Vehicle Security System (UVSS) which is capable of detecting hidden substances on the surface of a vehicle stationed or moving with a speed of 30 kmph. There are a few jails in the country which currently have the facility of UVSS. The UVSS system contains a camera along with an automatic registration number recording system.

Besides these, a boom barrier with a capacity to stop a 9 tonne vehicle coming at a high speed will be installed at the entry of the main premises of the jail. Currently, a multilayered iron barrier exists at the entry.

The administration has flouted tenders for procurement of the CCTV cameras and UVSS, and will initiate the process to procure boom barriers in coming days. Home Secretary, UT, Nitin Yadav, has given the approval for the same. The jail administration has invited firms through Government E Marketplace (GeM).

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“The CCTV cameras will cost around Rs 22-23 lakh. The UASS will cost around Rs 43 lakh. Shortly, tenders will be flouted for boom barriers also. We have expedited the process of procuring these systems after the recovery of RDX from the rear side boundary wall of the jail,” a prison officer requesting anonymity said. A series of meetings took place after the recovery of RDX under the supervision of IG (prisons) Deepak Purohit.

The only jail in Chandigarh which witnessed a sensational jail break in January, 2004, was in the headlines again when an RDX packed tiffin bomb like object was found abandoned near the boundary wall on May 9, this year.

In 2004, three Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) ultras along with a murder convict had escaped from the jail after digging a 98 feet long tunnel. Later, the…

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Mobile phone seized from inmate lodged in high-security cell in Nagpur central jail


A mobile phone handset was seized from an inmate of high-security ‘anda cell’ of the Nagpur central jail by jail staff, police said on Saturday. The phone was seized from Shekhu alias Gulanwaz Khan Izaz Khan (32) on Thursday and handed over to Dhantoli police for investigation, an official said.

Shekhu, history-sheeter, was arrested by the police in December 2019 for smuggling liquor. He, along with five others, were booked under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) and lodged in the jail.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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