Inmate stabbed, prison officers assaulted and six transferred after phone smuggling clashes

A series of clashes took place on the prison wing over two days last week which is being linked to a row between rival gangs vying for control of the jail’s phone- smuggling racket.

The flow of contraband phones into the prison was formerly controlled by associates of Limerick gangster Christopher ‘Smokie’ Costello.

But the killer, who is serving life for the murder of gang boss Kieran Keane in 2003, was transferred to Shelton Abbey Open Prison last month leaving a power vacuum on D-wing, sources said.

“There was a lot of tension on D-wing in the days leading up to what happened on Friday and Saturday of last week.”

“You had the lads from Dublin facing off against the country lads to see who would take control of the phones,” a source said.

“Phones are even more lucrative than drugs behind bars and the officers were very aware of the tensions on the wing. An amnesty had been offered for inmates before this all kicked off to turn in any weapons but that was probably a vain enough hope in the circumstances.

“On the Friday, there were a few scraps on the landings and in the yard. But the real damage happened on Saturday. Dwayne Stacey was out in the exercise yard when a group attacked him and he was stabbed badly.

“The weapon was seized afterwards and it wasn’t a shiv in the normal sense … it looked like something that had been put together in the shop.

“It was a sword more than a shiv.

“When the officers saw what was happening, they rushed in to intervene. They probably saved Stacey’s life but it came at a cost to them.

“One of the officers was attacked with a piece of wood and another was kicked in the head. Stacey was rushed to hospital after his attackers were restrained and the two officers also had to be treated in hospital.”

In the wake of the attack on Stacey and assaults on the officers, it’s understood a total of six inmates were booted off D-wing and transferred to other prisons.

Two inmates were transferred to Mountjoy, two to Limerick and two to Portlaoise.

The source said the attack on Stacey may have been carried out because he was an opportunistic target and an associate of the Dublin gang.

Stacey, of Windmill Park, Crumlin, received a 32-month sentence last month for the attempted robbery of a security guard at a cash-in-transit van.

Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard gardaí were called after a man on an e-scooter, later identified as Stacey, approached a Brinks van on Thomas Street, Dublin on November 18, 2023 and attempted to take a cash box.

He used an imitation firearm as he tried to make off with money from the town branch of Permanent TSB.

He was handed a nine-year jail sentence for the crime when the matter came before the court in 2015, with the final two years suspended.

Stacey has 17 previous convictions, including for assault and robbery.

The source said it is likely unrest will continue until one group or another controls the phone racket.