French police launches prison hunting for Chinese miniature phones

The French authorities have launched a nationwide hunt for thousands of tiny Chinese phones used by convicted for long criminal activity from the inside.

Phones, no bigger than the consumption, are almost completely plastic and have a reputation for being virtually invisible to metal detectors.

As part of the operation in prison, announced on Tuesday, a branch of the Paris Prosecutor’s Office, prison officers were authorized to searches in 500 cells in 66 detention facilities.

According to the Le Monde newspaper, the devices were nicknamed “composite” by the prisoners with the ease of concealment.

“Studies have shown that some of these phones were used to commit crimes from within detention, including drug trafficking, racketeering, arson and attempted murder,” the prosecutor’s office said.

French device supplier – Company called Oportik – was stopped with trading and arrested three employees. About 5,000 phones are believed to be the cheapest of which costs only 20 euros (£ 16.84).

French Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin pledged to crack gangs of drug addicts and other criminal organizations, whose leaders, he said, can continue to act even after his post.

In 2024, about 40,000 mobile phones were confiscated in prisons. Conventional devices are forecast over the prison walls or drones. Others are reputed by corrupt prison officers. In some prisons, the phone is deployed, but there is doubts about its effectiveness.

According to Le Monde, similar mini-telephones are produced in many China. While they are completely legitimate in France, it is a crime to supply prisoners.

The French prosecutor’s office said she had transmitted information about how she had traced OPORTIK phones to the EU’s judicial cooperation agency so that other countries could conduct similar clips.