Prison authorities have found a mobile phone and two chargers inside a prisoner’s stomach after he swallowed the objects in a bid to smuggle them into jail.
The Brazilian inmate consumed the items in an attempt to smuggle them into prison following an afternoon spent out on day release.
X-rays showed up the objects inside his stomach as he passed through security on his way back into Papuda Prison, located in the country’s capital Brasilia.
The unnamed inmate was then taken to a local hospital for an operation to remove the plastic-wrapped items.
He had been allowed out to celebrate Brazil’s National Children’s Day, when youngsters across the country receive gifts and families unite to celebrate childhood.
It is one of the biggest holidays of the year in Brazil, both culturally and commercially.
The discovery was made as he returned to jail yesterday morning, though it is not known what the prisoner was originally jailed for.
Prison governors said he would now lose prison benefits he had accrued, and be tried and punished for his new crime.
In August 2000, 11 inmates died during a riot at one of the five jails that form the Papuda Prison complex. Nine suffocated and two were burnt to death during a fire started during the riot.
Another riot in October 2001 left two dead and eleven injured.
