THE governor of Mountjoy prison, Ned Whelan, has received death threats over the new 'zero tolerance' approach to drugs he has implemented at Ireland's largest jail.

The Sunday Tribune understands that more that one threat has been issued to the governor, which gardaí are investigating. A source said that any threat made against a prison officer or governor was taken seriously and local gardaí in the area where Whelan lives are probing the threats.

It is understood that it was indicated in one of the threats received that criminals were aware of where the governor lived.

On a daily basis, threats are issued against prison staff by inmates. But as Whelan has been instrumental in curbing a significant proportion of contraband getting into Mountjoy, the threats against him are being taken extremely seriously. He has been given advice about his own personal safety and gardaí are patrolling in and around his house.

Since he took over as governor on 1 July, Whelan has made it his objective to close off all avenues bringing drugs, mobile phones, weapons and other contraband into the prison.

Whelan believes that the sale and supply of illegal drugs at the jail can be directly linked to the majority of violent incidents behind bars. He sanctioned sophisticated and expensive netting now covering the outside yards making it impossible for people to throw drugs in over the prison walls, previously one of the most popular methods of getting contraband in. This has sparked several protests by inmates.

Last Wednesday, 53 inmates refused to leave the D yard after lunch and return to their cells in protest over the netting, which has effectively stopped all drugs getting in over the prison walls. The prisoners' protest lasted for 50 minutes.

Mountjoy's control and restraint team, including a team of Alsatian dogs, was deployed to bring the situation under control. All the inmates returned inside and no officers or prisoners were injured in the incident.

The six ringleaders of the incident were later identified by prison staff. They have now been disciplined internally.

A prison source said: "The latest attempt of the prisoners to protest over the nets has been a failure. The nets are here to stay; drugs cannot come into the prison that way and this is something inmates will have to accept.

"No-one was injured in the incident and the message is finally being received by prisoners that the new regime is here to stay."

In another incident at the jail on Wednesday, a fire broke out in one of the cells. The incident occurred in a cell on the protection landing, where inmates who are kept separate from the general prison population are housed.

A mattress was burnt by an inmate in the fire. Two prisoners were taken to hospital but were released soon afterwards after it was established that they weren't suffering from smoke inhalation. One man suffered minor burns to one of his hands.

Visitors to the prison have been going to extreme lengths to smuggle contraband in since the new regime has been implemented. Several weeks ago, prison officers discovered a mobile phone in a baby's nappy. The child was unwittingly being used by its mother to try and smuggle in a phone to a loved one. Prison intelligence recently discovered that a mobile phone at the jail is now worth €4,000, making it the most expensive place in the country to try to purchase a phone.

On the day the horizontal and vertical netting was put up in the D yard, a prisoner ripped a phone off the wall in the yard and threw it at the nets in an attempt to dislodge drugs caught there. This attempt failed. Several others kicked footballs at the net to knock the drugs free, but this was also unsuccessful.