Prisoner caught with £100k of drugs in prison cell

A prisoner has pleaded guilty to being in possession with the intent to supply more than £100,000 of spice-laced paper in HMP Lincoln.

Mark Cutler was today (Friday 28 January 2022) sentenced to 15 months imprisonment after more than 300 pieces of paper laced with ‘Spice’ were found stored between his mattress, during a search in March last year.

Mark Cutler

When put through a scanner, a synthetic cannabinoid was found laced into the paper, which had been disguised as legal paperwork.

The 32-year-old, of Morton Front, Gainsborough, admitted to prison staff that the paper was his.

He had since been released from prison but will now return, after being sentenced at Lincoln Crown Court earlier today.

Detective Inspector Dan Evans from the East Midlands Special Operations Unit’s Prison Intelligence team said: “The supply of this quantity of Class B drugs into HMP Lincoln with a prison value of over £100,000 would have had a significant impact on the safety of prisoners and the good order and discipline of the prison.

“It is only right that this prisoner has been convicted for this offence.

“Debt and violence are sometimes unrecognised consequences of the illicit drug market in prison and the police must continue to work together with the prison service to disrupt such offenders.”