A prisoner kept drug dealing in prison going from behind bars. He reportedly pulled in between £400,000 and £500,000 every two months, using drone deliveries to move drugs into a Lancashire jail. Then he was found dead in his cell, and a new watchdog report has laid bare how he did it.

Johnpaul Digweed, 36, received a 25 year sentence in June 2022 for supplying drugs. Staff moved him to HMP Garth near Leyland the following month. But the walls did not stop him. The ombudsman found he had been “organising drone deliveries of drugs and other illicit items” into the jail, and investigators saw “significant evidence” that he was involved in prison drug culture.

Drug Dealing In Prison Kept the Money Flowing

Adrian Usher, the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman, wrote a report that paints a picture of a man who never really left the criminal networks that put him behind bars in the first place. Organised crime gangs outside the jail wanted him, and he owed money he could not pay. That detail shows how the prison drug trade rarely stays contained once someone owes the wrong people cash.

Staff caught him with a mobile phone on six separate occasions. He tested positive for cocaine in September 2023. Around the same time, he made superficial cuts to his own chest. Staff offered him support. He turned it down.

Then, on 1 November, CCTV cameras caught four other prisoners entering his cell. Staff later found injuries consistent with a blade attack on his body. Digweed said he had fallen. His security file told a different story. It recorded the incident as thought to be drug debt and gang related, underlining just how far the consequences of dealing drugs behind bars can reach.

A Relationship Under Strain, and a System Under Pressure

Digweed’s personal life was also unravelling. On 27 September, staff removed his prison laptop after they noticed damage to the screen. He went without one for six months, a gap the ombudsman said “might have negatively impacted his mental health and ability to maintain family ties”. His phone calls from this period suggested his relationship with his partner was under strain.

Staff last saw Digweed alive during a routine evening count on 12 April 2024. Someone covered his observation panel during the early morning roll check, and it remained covered when staff carried out a welfare check at 09:07. The staff responsible for that check took no action. An officer unlocked his cell at about 11:30 but did not look inside. Shortly afterwards, another member of staff found him hanged.

Investigators later found text messages between Digweed and his partner on a mobile phone in his cell. The two had argued about their relationship. He told her he was “sick of” things and “could not be bothered any more”. The day after his death, other prisoners told officers he was wanted by organised crime gangs and worried about money.

What the Prison Drug Trade Left Behind

Mr Usher said he found no evidence that Digweed faced a heightened or imminent risk of suicide at the time of his death. But information that emerged afterwards suggested his sentence was putting real strain on his relationship, and that money worries weighed on him too.

He also raised a wider concern. Blocked observation panels were, he said, a widespread problem at Garth, and staff did not always follow local guidance when they carried out routine and welfare checks. He acknowledged that the prison had already taken some steps to address this.

Digweed’s case shows that drug dealing in prison does not end when a judge hands down a sentence. Drone deliveries, smuggled phones and a determined network outside the walls kept his operation running for almost two years. It generated sums that dwarf many legitimate salaries, while the debts, threats and pressure that come with that world followed him straight into custody. The headline figures rarely capture the real cost: fractured relationships, self harm, and a death behind bars that closer attention could have prevented.

Source: dbrecoveryresources