An inmate with a stash of meth, cannabis bud and oil, and an acid tab was caught trying to smuggle the drugs into prison after a period of compassionate leave.
The planned drug run was thwarted by the Department of Corrections after it intercepted a series of phone calls between an inmate at Whanganui's Kaitoke Prison and Taranaki man Daniel Alan Couchman.
The pair spoke over the phone a number of times in April last year, discussing their plans to sell cannabis.
Couchman, 27, said he had around a pound of weed in the boot of a car at a Stratford property and agreed to sell an ounce of the drug and use the proceeds to top up the inmate's "account".