Spice found soaked into HMP Lincoln letter

Paper soaked with the illegal synthetic drug Spice has been found by staff at HMP Lincoln.

It was found in a package disguised as a legal letter, which contained 29 sheets of blank A4 sheets impregnated with the substance.

Each sheet had a value on the wings of between £100 and £160, staff said.

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) said the substance was intercepted by scanning equipment at the prison.

It follows a number of incidents, including one where a man was caught throwing packages of drugs over the wall into the prison in a bid to clear his debts with a loan shark.

There have also been reports of drones being used to get contraband and mobile phones over the walls.

A report in 2017 found HMP Lincoln faced increased levels of violence among inmates, often related to the prevalence of drugs.

The MoJ said high-tech scanning equipment was one of a range of measures being used in a bid to combat drugs in prisons.

New body scanners and sniffer dogs are also being introduced in some areas.

Spice, which is designed to mimic the effects of cannabis, can have severe debilitating effects, and can leave users in a zombie-like state.