TWO PEOPLE from Dorchester have been arrested and charged with attempting to take drugs and prohibited items into a Portland prison.

The arrests at HMP YOI Portland come as police in Dorset attempt to crack down on attempts to convey illegal drugs and mobile phones into the county's jails.

The incident on Portland occurred on Thursday and the following day Dorset Police and HM Prison Service took part in a joint operation at HMP Guys Marsh in Shaftesbury, one of a series of operations that have taken place across the county over the past year.

After officers were called to reports of suspicious activity outside HMP Portland YOI, a 36-year-old man from Dorchester has been charged with three counts of possession with intent to supply Class A drugs, two counts of taking prohibited items into prison and one charge of possession of cannabis.

He is due to appear before Bournemouth Magistrates’ Court today.

A 39-year-old woman, also from Dorchester, has been charged with three counts of possession with intent to supply Class A drugs and two counts of taking prohibited items into prison.

She is due to appear before Weymouth Magistrates’ Court on Friday, January 30.

The operation at Guys Marsh took place both inside the prison entrance and surrounding roads outside and visitors were stopped and searched before they entered.

During the operation three women and two men were subjected to searches. No illegal drugs, mobile phones or other contraband was seized and no arrests were made.

Chief Inspector Ben Hargreaves, of Dorset Police, said: "There is a strong link between incidents of criminality and violence inside prisons and the availability of illegal drugs and mobile phones and other contraband.

"Our aim was to tackle drugs and other commodities from entering the prison, which we believe will lead directly to a reduction in violent incidents. Immediate feedback was that visitors were surprised by the scale of our operation.

"We will continue to carry out similar operations throughout 2017 and I hope our day of action at HMP Guys Marsh sends out a very clear message to prisoners, their visitors and the public that we have a zero tolerance toward trafficking and anyone involved in such activity will be arrested and prosecuted."

A Prison Service spokesman said: "We have announced a major shake-up of the prison system with 2,500 extra prison officers and new security measures to tackle drones, phones and drugs and help make prisons places of safety and reform.

"We take a zero tolerance approach to contraband in prisons and we are stepping up efforts to find and block mobile phones. We are also introducing tougher new sentences for those smuggling mobile phones into prisons.

"We have set out plans to educate prisoners about the dangers of drugs, especially the risks of new psychoactive substances. As part of our strategy to tackle this, we have rolled out new testing and have trained over 300 dogs to detect these substances."