Inmates using hidden mobile phones to plot crimes outside
Although Government figures show at least 370 mobiles and Sim cards were found in the region's prisons last year, Ministers have admitted they do not know how many are being used.
Prison officers believe there are up to 2,000 and have called for mobile phone reception in jails to be blocked so inmates cannot order killings or arrange drug deals from inside.
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Hide AdStatistics revealed by Justice Minister Maria Eagle show that the authorities found 4,461 mobiles and 4,325 Sim cards in prisons in England and Wales between February 2009 and January this year. Among them were 376 mobiles and 379 Sim cards in Yorkshire.
Prison Officers Association (POA) spokesman Glyn Travis said: "We believe that, nationally, there is one mobile phone, charger and Sim card for every 10 prisoners, which is absolutely ridiculous.
"If almost 400 have been found in Yorkshire prisons, the actual number being used is probably nearer 2,000."
Eight staff at Wakefield Prison, one of the region's top-security jails, have been suspended while authorities investigate allegations of phone smuggling.
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Hide AdAccording to the Government's figures, a quarter of the phones found in Yorkshire were in Lindholme Prison, near Doncaster, and one in five were in Wolds Prison, in the East Riding.
Inmates in both jails have been able to orchestrate major crimes from their cells.
Lindholme prisoner George Moon used a contraband mobile and two Sim cards to run an international cocaine ring, liaising with a contact in a Panama jail to smuggle drugs worth 300,000 into the UK.
Gang leader Nigel Ramsey was a serving prisoner at Wolds when he used a mobile to orchestrate the murder of 17-year-old Tarek Chaiboub outside a Sheffield barber's shop in July 2008.
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Hide AdA spokeswoman for the Prison Service said it was trialling technology that would block mobile phone signals but had found no "off-the-shelf solution".
MOBILES SEIZED BY PRISONS
Prison Mobiles Sim cards
Askham Grange 0 0
Doncaster 8 13
Everthorpe 54 47
Full Sutton 1 6
Hull 28 32
Leeds 45 58
Lindholme 97 82
Moorland Open 23 18
Moorland Closed 26 28
New Hall 0 0
Northallerton 1 1
Wakefield 0 0
Wealstun 20 27
Wetherby 5 4
Wolds 68 63
TOTAL 376 379
Figures for February 2009 to January 2010