Doncaster duo sent hollowed-out DVD player stuffed with £117,000 of spice in the post to prison
Officers opened the parcel to find 400 sheets of paper covered in ‘a yellow substance’
A South Yorkshire duo tried to smuggle £110,000 of spice into prison by stuffing it in a DVD player and sending it in the post.
Custody officers at HMP Lindholme, Doncaster, seized a parcel addressed to an inmate after it caught the attention of drug-sniffer dogs in November 2021.
They opened the package to find a DVD player - but, on closer inspection, they prised it open to find a bounty of contraband items worth upwards of six figures on the inside.
They included 14 mobiles phones with chargers, 27 SIM cards, three screwdrivers, seven USB sticks, two memory cards - as well as two paperback books.
These last two items especially aroused suspicion, as officers noted that they, along with a stack of around 400 sheets of A4 paper also in the DVD player, were coated in a yellow substance.
This was, in fact, because all of the stashed-away paper was covered in spice, the street name for potent synthetic cannabis.
The huge stack of papers soaked in drugs had a street value of around £30,000 - but an estimated value of over £117,000 inside of prison.
Officers also found two small bags, one of which contained a white powder identified as ketamine, itself worth over £3,000 alone.
Investigations into the parcel, which was sent through postal service Hermes, led to police to a woman who was duped into sending the parcel on behalf of another. She was charged with conspiring to smuggle drugs into prison, but was later acquitted a trial.
Instead, an email attached to the Hermes account led police to the real culprits - HMP Lindholme inmate Luke King, 35, of Dunscroft, and Jade Bell, 34, of Skellow.
It emerged King agreed to arrange the delivery to clear debts with the help of Bell on the outside. The two have known each other since school.
King denied his offending, but later plead guilty to two counts of conspiracy to convey banned items into prison on the day of his trial. Bell was found guilty after trial.
At Sheffield Crown Court on Friday, September 25, the court heard 35-year-old King “matured remarkably” in the four years since the offence, leaving prison while committing no further offences and setting up his own business.
Meanwhile, the court heard Bell’s three children would be “severely impacted” if she were to face jail time.
But, in sentencing, Recorder Ms Helen Chapman said the “significant” value of the smuggled items could only be met with an immediate prison sentence.
“Prohibited items smuggled into prison create debt and exploitation - they threaten the stability of prison custody and the safety of the staff,” said the judge.
“I’m satisfied you were both instrumental in this conspiracy.
“In my judgement, these offences require a substantial deterrent sentence.
“The overall value of the package was significant. This does not merely cross but substantially passes the custody threshold.”
King was jailed for four years and 10 months. Bell received four years and five months.
It comes after a report by the HM Inspectorate of Prisons in September 2026 ruled that rampant drug use remains a persistent problem at HMP Lindholme, where more than half of prisoners in a survey said drugs were easy to obtain.