Il­le­gal cell­phones smug­gled in­to Trinidad and To­ba­go’s pris­ons—some loaded with pre­paid cred­it val­ues rang­ing from $8,000 to $11,000—are en­abling in­mates to run crim­i­nal net­works from be­hind bars.

Prison Of­fi­cers’ As­so­ci­a­tion (POA) pres­i­dent Ger­ard Gor­don said the dis­cov­ery, made dur­ing search­es by prison and po­lice of­fi­cers, ex­pos­es one of the most se­ri­ous se­cu­ri­ty threats fac­ing the na­tion’s cor­rec­tion­al fa­cil­i­ties.

De­spite in­ten­si­fied se­cu­ri­ty mea­sures, pris­ons con­tin­ue to serve as hubs for il­lic­it ac­tiv­i­ty, prompt­ing ur­gent calls to end the flow of con­tra­band that car­ries se­ri­ous con­se­quences.