Crackdown launched on contraband inside NSW jails

A white-eyed border collie with a nose for mobile phones is spearheading the biggest crackdown on contraband inside New South Wales jails.

Two-year-old Hank was front and centre when prison officers launched their first raid at Sydney's Long Bay Jail on Monday.

Operation Purge is an 11-week blitz on 36 institutions.

Ninety specialist trained officers have vowed to strike at any time, on any day, at any prison, targeting mobile phones, drugs and weapons.

Items seized in the Long Bay raid included 2.7 grams of a crystal substance, 29.4 grams of tobacco and two prison-made weapons.

The operation was triggered after a bragging inmate lifted the lid on contraband inside jails.

Using an illegal mobile phone, the prisoner showed off drugs and a knife he had in his cell.

He claimed he'd purchased the mobile phone from a prison officer.

New South Wales Corrective Service Minister David Elliot said he was "shocked" by the vision and conceded this latest "intervention" was prompted by it.

At today's launch of Operation Purge, Hank was put through his paces.

He had three bags to choose from and within seconds, he flushed out a mobile phone.

Hank and an English springer spaniel named Ivy are the only dogs trained in Australia to detect mobile phone.

In the first four months of this year, 132 phones have been found inside New South Wales prisons.