Corrective Services NSW conducted a targeted visitor search operation at Cessnock Correctional Centre. They unearthed tobacco, alcohol, methamphetamine, drug paraphernalia and weapons.

There were items found secreted in balloons stuffed down a woman’s pants, concealed in the glove box of a vehicle, in a handbag and hidden behind a skip bin.

Corrective Services officers from the elite Security Operations Group were assisted by the dog unit to find the contraband.

The items seized included:

Searches were also conducted at Goulburn and Long Bay correctional centres on the weekend.

Sunday was not the first time Corrective Services has seized a stockpile of illicit items from Cessnock jail visitors.

The Security Operations Group has conducted 13 visitor search days at the prison this year.

In those searches, visitors have been caught with tobacco, drugs, a mobile phone and charger, cash and a variety of weapons.

A total of 5,249 Cessnock jail visitors have been searched in 2017.

Seventy of those were denied entry and 43 were charged.

Corrective Services Assistant Commissioner Mark Wilson PSM said visitors bringing contraband into jails were doing more harm than good – and were likely to be caught.

“Any contraband that enters the prison environment presents a major risk to the health, safety and security of staff and inmates," he said.

"Visitors can be guaranteed specialist search teams are a regular presence at correctional centres and we’ll continue to show absolutely no tolerance for contraband."

A Corrective Services NSW spokeswoman said contraband was a challenge for prison systems across the world.

She said officers used a range of methods to track down and confiscate contraband, often with the assistance of the dog unit.

“The more contraband seized by staff means the less circulating among inmates,” the spokeswoman said.

Searches for illegal and banned items are conducted daily on prisoners, visitors, cells and all common areas.

Search operations are also conducted regularly by the specialist Security Operations Group.

Visitors caught bringing banned items to correctional centres face penalties of up to two years imprisonment.

They could also face additional drug-related criminal charges or be banned from visits for up to two years.

Central Hunter crime manager Detective Inspector George Radmore said the problem took up a significant amount of police time.

“There wouldn’t be many weekends that go by where there isn’t an arrest,” he said.

Inspector Radmore said he believed people may try to smuggle items if they had successfully done so before.

He said it was hard to say how much contraband was going through undetected, but that illegal items must be getting into inmates hands.

“Whatever system they’ve got doesn’t stop 100 per cent of drugs and weapons,” he said.

But he said there was a strong chance people would be caught if they took contraband on jail grounds.

“Comply with the law or face the consequences,” he said.