Aircon unit, flat screen TV, other contraband seized in latest NBP raid

An airconditioning unit, a flat screen TV and mobile phones were seized along with other contraband after at least 500 agents of the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) stormed the New Bilibid Prison's (NBP) maximum security compound on Saturday.

A report by GMA News' John Consulta on Balitanghali said that NBP Superintendent Richard Schwarzkopf Jr. and BuCor Director Ricardo Cruz III led the raid..

Before the raid, the 3,000 inmates residing at the third quadrant of the facility's maximum security compound were relocated to another area in the NBP to allow the agents to focus on their search operations.

Contraband including bladed weapons, home-made guns, mobile phones and illegal drugs were found during the search.

The contraband were mostly found in hidden compartments with some discovered in the pockets of the inmates' clothes.

The airconditioning unit and flat screen TV were seized from the cell of former Calauan mayor Antonio Sanchez, a convicted rapist.

Sanchez explained that he needed the airconditioning unit and the TV because he has skin asthma, various heart and kidney conditions.

The former mayor, who has been detained in the NBP for 22 years, showed the findings of prior medical checkups as proof of his condition.

Cruz, however, said that the former mayor should not be given a special treatment.

Meanwhile, the NBP has discovered that the signal jammers installed in the prison compound were already obselete.

The NBP said that their jammers can no longer affect the signals of devices using 3G, 4G, LTE and WiFi signals.

The NBP confiscated a large amount of ammunition during a raid earlier this week. —Drei Medina/ALG, GMA News