An act­ing Prison Of­fi­cer II has been ar­rest­ed af­ter he was found try­ing to smug­gle a cell phone and mar­i­jua­na be­neath a box of food on Sat­ur­day morn­ing.

Po­lice said of­fi­cers of the Prison In­ter­dic­tion Unit (PIU) and the White Col­lar Crime Unit were con­duct­ing se­cu­ri­ty checks at the Arou­ca Max­i­mum Se­cu­ri­ty Prison dur­ing the 11 am shift change when they searched of­fi­cers en­ter­ing the fa­cil­i­ty.

One of the scan­ners was trig­gered prompt­ing of­fi­cers to search the man’s box of food when they found the con­tra­band wrapped in plas­tic be­neath the food.

The of­fi­cer was de­tained and charged with the of­fence.

Sources said of­fi­cers of the White-Col­lar crime unit have been as­signed to as­sist prison of­fi­cials in clamp­ing down on crim­i­nal­i­ty and the in­flux of con­tra­band.