A CHANNINGS Wood prisoner and his girlfriend have been jailed for running a plot to smuggle drugs into jails all over Britain on letters soaked in the mind-bending substance Spice.

Chad Baron sent instructions to Rosie Huggett listing the names and prison numbers of friends who were sent the letters which were up to 80 pages long and could be re-sold on the black market for up to £1,000 a page.

Another woman supplied her with the paper and Huggett spent hours writing fake love letters to the inmates.

She ran out of things to say and resorted to transcribing screeds of poetry in the letters but was warned off this by her boyfriend.

Prison authorities known about Spice impregnated paper for five years and they estimate that a single A4 sheet is worth £250 to £500, and double that if torn up and sold in small pieces.

Baron has links to an organised crime group known as The Bristol Boys and some of those supplied with the Spice paper had been fellow members.

Huggett and Baron also ran a racket smuggling miniature mobile phones into Channings Wood Prison in Devon where he was serving a two and a half year sentence for burglary.

Criminals who knew they were about to be sent there pre-ordered phones which Baron had ready for them to pick up when they arrived.

Baron and Huggett were caught when she was seen handing over a sausage shaped package during a visit which contained two ounces of Spice with a value of £2,000 inside the prison.

She was paid £200 or £250 a time to visit him and other prisoners and smuggle in drugs or phones.

After he was caught, he claimed he was bullied into the scheme but boasting texts which he sent told how he planned to ‘smash £5,000 a week’ out of the scheme.

Baron, aged 27, of Wells Road, Radstock, and Huggett, aged 26, of Frome Road, Radstock, admitted conspiracy to convey contraband into prison, being concerned in the supply of Spice and cannabis.

He was jailed for 15 months and she was jailed for a year by Recorder Mr Benjamin Newton at Exeter Crown Court.

He told them both that the conspiracy was so serious there had to be immediate jail terms, despite both having turned their lives around in the three years the case has come to court.

Mr Adrian Chaplin, prosecuting, said Baron had links to organised crime and had used illegally held mobile phones to plan Huggett’s visits to him and other prisoners.

She was paid up to £250 a time for the trips and money was transferred into her bank accounts for the drugs and phones. Baron sent out her bank details 50 times.

She was paid £30 to £50 per page but they were worth far more than that inside prison.

They were caught on CCTV exchanging a package during a visit at Channings Wood on May 23, 2018. She pulled it from her leggings and passed it over but he passed it back when he realised they had been spotted.

Mr Derek Perry, for Baron, said he was bullied into taking part to pay of debts of £2,000 he ran up after becoming addicted to Spice in prison.

His father Paul is a wealthy businessman who has been awarded an MBE for his work with street children in India and Africa and inmates allowed Baron to rack up debts because they thought his family would pay them off.

He said Baron only got involved with the scheme after being subjected to repeated bullying and beatings. He has stayed out of trouble since his release and is now running a chip shop in Glastonbury.

Miss Emma Martin, for Huggett, said she was using drugs, mixing with criminals and living a chaotic lifestyle at the time but is now a reformed character who nursed her dying father through a terminal illness last year.