French law enforcement has launched a sweeping operation to locate and seize thousands of ultra-small, Chinese-manufactured mobile phones being used by prisoners to orchestrate criminal activities from inside detention facilities.

These discreet devices—roughly the size of a cigarette lighter and composed mostly of plastic—are prized by inmates for their ability to evade detection by standard metal detectors. Known within the prison system as "suppositories" due to their ease of concealment, the phones have become a growing concern for prison authorities.

Dubbed Operation Prison Break, the initiative was announced Tuesday by the cybercrime division of the Paris prosecutor's office. Under the operation, searches are being conducted in 500 cells across 66 detention centres nationwide.

According to a report by Le Monde, investigations revealed that the phones were used in coordinating serious criminal offenses from behind bars, including drug trafficking, extortion, arson, and even attempted murder.

Authorities have shut down Oportik, a French distributor believed to have sold around 5,000 of the mini-phones, the cheapest of which were priced at just €20 (£16.84). Three employees from the company have been arrested. France's Justice Minister, Gérald Darmanin, reiterated the government’s commitment to dismantling criminal networks that persist in operating even after key members are imprisoned.

The scale of the problem is significant: in 2024 alone, authorities confiscated approximately 40,000 mobile phones in French prisons. While standard phones are often thrown over prison walls or delivered by drones, others are smuggled in with the help of corrupt staff. Although some facilities use signal-jamming technology, its effectiveness remains questionable.

The mini-phones, widely manufactured in China, are legal for general sale in France, but supplying them to inmates is a criminal offense. The Paris prosecutor's office has shared intelligence with Eurojust, the EU’s judicial cooperation agency, to assist other countries in launching similar crackdowns on the illicit prison phone trade.