A crackdown on drugs, weapons and mobile phones being smuggled into HMP Forest Bank has taken place after a Salford MP called for a probe into the prison.
Police, prison staff and officers from the North West Regional Organised Crime Unit (NWROCU) – a specialist team of detectives drawn from forces across the locality – searched people for contraband to stop them from taking illegal items into the prison.
The traffic operation, which took place on Friday 7 November at the Pendelbury-based jail, was part of a high-visibility effort to tackle organised smuggling across the North West.
It took place weeks after the release of a report by the prisons watchdog revealed an inmate was found dead in his cell at Forest Bank only 15 hours after he was transferred there.
While a post-mortem examination was unable to determine the cause of prisoner Stephen Wallock’s passing, toxicology reports showed he had used synthetic cannabinoids some time before his death.
Mr Wallock is one of 12 people to have died at Forest Bank in the last two years, according to a review by the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman.
Salford MP Rebecca Long-Bailey previously expressed concern about the “alarming number of deaths” and has called for an “urgent review into prison conditions and oversight at Forest Bank.”
Detective Superintendent Iqbal Ahmed of Greater Manchester Police oversaw a day of action at the Salford prison and two other Greater Manchester jails.
Outside Forest Bank, he said: “One of the key threats to prisons is contraband. The operation today aims to search people and prevent them from bringing in illegal items.
“This can be drugs, weapons and mobile phones, but also takeaways and a host of different commodities that prisoners want to reflect their lives outside.”
Detective Superintendent Clare McGuire from NWROCU explained: “All these items being brought in are fuelling serious and organised crime. They are fuelling violence within the prisons and they are disrupting the peace and order of the prison population.”
According to crime statistics published by the government, 1,712 drone incidents were recorded between April 2024 and March 2025, a 43% rise on the previous year.
Det Supt McGurie highlighted that police and prison services are “sharing intelligence, working together and trying to think outside the box,” as they aim to clamp down on the number of drones infiltrating jails and supplying prisoners with illegal items.
“You can see the ramifications (of smuggling) outside in the community with the exploitation of people being used to bring the commodities in, people are threatened and get into debt bondage,” she said.
When asked why prisons such as Forest Bank have such a tough time stopping illicit drugs from getting in, Det Supt Ahmed highlighted that drug dealing is far more lucrative inside jail, where heroin is worth up to “ten times more” than its street value outside.
He explained that there is a “host of different” class A and B drugs being found in prisons, ordered in by inmates on mobile phones and delivered by hi-tech drones operated by professional crime organisations.
“We are working proactively to seize people who are ready to deploy the drones before the drugs and weapons make it into prison.”
He added that “there is a lot of money to be made” by criminals willing to fly phones into prison, as phones worth £50 are bought by inmates for £2,000.
The pair explained that prisoners often get dragged into large debts by organised criminals on the outside and can suffer intimidation and violence on their release. Often, they say, families of inmates can become beholden to smugglers and forced to repay hefty sums of money to dangerous lawbreakers.
They stated that the coordinated offensive against people smuggling contraband into HMP Forest Bank serves as evidence regional police care about tackling crime in Salford.
“Today shows that we are taking prisons and criminality seriously and we are continuing to work with the community to gather intelligence and information that will help us to get on top of this organised crime,” Det Supt Ahmed said.
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