South Carolina corrections officials find weapons, cellphones during contraband bust

COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina prison officials made a large bust last week, collecting weapons, cellphones, wine and even a bong, authorities said.

>> Read more trending news

The contraband was seized at the Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia, WIS-TV reported.

Prison officials said they recovered 34 shanks, 10 cellphones, three bags of homemade wine and a bong fashioned out of a chicken bone, WACH reported. Eight lighters and two Pop-Tart boxes filled with prescription medication were also confiscated, according to WIS.

“Our intelligence unit got some information about some contraband and some other issues at this dorm in Broad River,” Bryan Stirling, director of the South Carolina Department of Corrections, told WACH.

Stirling added that on Tuesday, prison officials found four shanks and 19.5 gallons of homemade wine in a dormitory at Lee Correctional Institution in Bishopville.

There were 252 inmates in the Broad River dormitory where the contraband was found last week, WACH reported. Stirling said his department is aware of people trying to use creative ways to smuggle objects into the prison.

“We have folks who try to drop things in through drones,” Stirling said. “We have folks that try to mail stuff in.”

Stirling said last week’s search took a full day, adding that if prison officials had conducted another round of searches they likely would have found more illegal items.

“This is not unusual,” Stirling told WACH. “When we’ve searched an entire prison, we found a lot more and that is searching common areas, kitchen, dorms, living spaces.

“We don’t stop until we find the source.”

Cox Media Group