{"id":362513,"date":"2025-08-21T16:49:16","date_gmt":"2025-08-21T16:49:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/362513\/"},"modified":"2025-08-21T16:49:16","modified_gmt":"2025-08-21T16:49:16","slug":"prison-officer-smuggled-drugs-and-tobacco-into-jail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/362513\/","title":{"rendered":"Prison officer smuggled drugs and tobacco into jail"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Christian Gomez was sentenced after his crimes were exposed<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/0_231024avro2.jpg\" alt=\"HMP Forest Bank\" loading=\"eager\"  \/>HMP Forest Bank(Image: Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">A former prison officer who was jailed for smuggling \u00a315,000 worth of drugs and tobacco into HMP Forest Bank has now been ordered to pay back thousands of pounds. Christian Gomez, 40, was sentenced to two years and four months behind bars <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.liverpoolecho.co.uk\/all-about\/courts\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"after pleading guilty to conveying illegal articles into prison.Link opens in a new tab.\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"noopener\">after pleading guilty to conveying illegal articles into prison.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">Gomez appeared in court again on Friday, August 15 where a confiscation order of \u00a36,220.19 was agreed. While the defence argued he was just a courier and not responsible for the full<a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.liverpoolecho.co.uk\/all-about\/crime\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\" \u00a315,000 value of the drugsLink opens in a new tab.\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"noopener\"> \u00a315,000 value of the drugs<\/a>, financial checks revealed unexplained cash deposits in his bank account over seven months, pointing to broader involvement.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">The court heard that North West Regional Organised Crime Unit&#8217;s (NWROCU) prison anti-corruption unit pursued confiscation proceedings against Gomez <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.liverpoolecho.co.uk\/all-about\/crime\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"due to his criminal activity.Link opens in a new tab.\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"noopener\">due to his criminal activity.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">Gomez, of East Street, Rochdale, must now pay the full \u00a36,220.19 within three months or face a default sentence of three months.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">Ali Peacock, senior financial investigator at the NWROCU, said: \u201cThis case sends a clear and powerful message, corruption at any level does not pay.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">&#8220;Gomez may have thought he could profit from smuggling contraband into prison, but not only was he caught and jailed, he\u2019s now being stripped of the money he made.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">\u201cEven after conviction, our work doesn\u2019t stop. We will continue to investigate and recover criminal assets to ensure offenders do not benefit from their crimes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">For the latest news and breaking news visit <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.liverpoolecho.co.uk\/news\" target=\"_self\" aria-label=\"\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"noopener\">liverpoolecho.co.uk\/news<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">Get all the big headlines, pictures, analysis, opinion and video on the stories that matter to you by signing up to our <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/data.reachplc.com\/212764146160855\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"daily and breaking newsletterLink opens in a new tab.\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"noopener\">daily and breaking newsletter<\/a>. Sign up to our breaking news newsletter <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/data.reachplc.com\/212764146160855\" target=\"_self\" aria-label=\"\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">Follow us on <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.liverpoolecho.co.uk\/all-about\/twitter\" target=\"\" aria-label=\"\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"noopener\">Twitter<\/a> <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/LivEchonews\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"@LivECHONewsLink opens in a new tab.\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"noopener\">@LivECHONews<\/a> &#8211; the official Liverpool ECHO Twitter account &#8211; real news in real time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">We&#8217;re also on <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/theliverpoolecho\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"Facebook\/theliverpoolechoLink opens in a new tab.\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"noopener\">Facebook\/theliverpoolecho<\/a> &#8211; your must-see news, features, videos and pictures throughout the day from the Liverpool ECHO.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Christian Gomez was sentenced after his crimes were exposedHMP Forest Bank(Image: Manchester Evening News) A former prison officer&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":362514,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8813],"tags":[748,30,188,393,4884,378,2465,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-362513","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manchester","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-courts","10":"tag-crime","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-in-the-news","14":"tag-manchester","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115067785834584290","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=362513"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362513\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/362514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=362513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=362513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=362513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}