Criminology student jailed for sending 'spice letters' to her brother in Wakefield Prison

Falis Hassan and Abdiwali Hassan were arrested after the Prison Service recorded their conversations as they discussed smuggling the drug into the maximum security jail.

The pair also discussed sending spice to inmates in other Category A prisons including HMP Belmarsh and HMP Frankland.

Leeds Crown Court heard the smuggling conspiracy took place between April 15 and April 30 last year.

Prison officers at Wakefield intercepted two letters which had been impregnated with the class B synthetic cannabis drug.

The siblings were arrested after their telephone conversions were recorded then translated by a Somali interpreter.

During the conversations Abdiwali, 31, told his sister how to make "spice letters".

Falis, 26, later told her brother that producing the letters "made her high".

The pair also discussed the mail scanning process in prisons.

Letters were sent to HMP Wakefield by recorded delivery from a post office in Ealing, in London, and were intercepted on two occasions.

One letter was addressed to Abdiwali and the other to another prisoner in the jail.

Abdiwali was recorded telling his sister that the letters had been intercepted.

He asked her to send more letters and to spray them with art fixing spray to prevent the drug from being detected by scanning machines.

They also talked about selling five letters for £500.

Abdiwali told his sister he had written to a prisoner at HMP Frankland and asked her if she had been contacted by an inmate at HMP Belmarsh.

Christopher Dunn, prosecuting, said: "The male defendant was clearly running a business not just in his own prison but other prisons".

Both defendants pleaded guilty to conspiracy to convey a class B drug into prison.

Abdiwali appeared in court via a video link from HMP Swaleside, in Kent,

He is currently serving a prison sentence of indeterminate length and will only be released from custody when the Parole Board no longer considers him to be a danger to the public.

His barrister, Jessica Tate, said Abdiwali accepted he played a leading role in the conspiracy.

Ms Tate said: "He is absolutely clear that it was all his idea.

"He is utterly distressed about what he has done to his sister and the effect it has had on her and her future".

Nicki Roberson, for Falis, said her client was scared of going to prison.

The court heard Falis was three months away from completing a degree in criminology.

Falis, of Yeames Close, Ealing, was jailed for 12 months and Abdiwali was given a 15-month sentence.

Judge Penelope Belcher told Falis: "Your brother seeks to take all the blame from you and take it on himself.

"For him to try to take all the blame for this makes no sense.

"There is no suggestion whatsoever that you were threatened in any way or could not have said no. You clearly could.

"I do not accept that it was naivety because you knew it was illegal and you knew the risks you were running.

"You knew exactly what you were doing."