A man who tried to smuggle £23,000 of drugs over Pentonville Prison’s perimeter wall has today been jailed for 27 months.

Joshua Lewis, 25, from Stroud Green, was sentenced at Blackfriars Crown Court after admitting the offences.

Among the contraband was MDMA, cocaine, cannabis, psychoactive substances and 19 mobile phones.

He was caught in August 2016, when Caledonian ward cops were patrolling the troubled prison, which has a long history of drug smuggling.

The officers spotted a string coming down from the prison grounds. They waited and saw Lewis approach the string outside the wall.

He managed to escape after a five-minute foot chase, but was later identified from DNA on his personal phone, which had been dropped as well as two bags containing the drugs. Lewis was arrested in January last year.

Insp Steve Murfin, from Islington police station, said: “This individual was found to be carrying a substantial amount of controlled drugs and phones. Due to the vigilance of officers, it was prevented from entering the prison

“We work closely with the Prison Service to gather intelligence in order to carry out proactive operations to arrest and prosecute those who commit this crime. This was an excellent piece of prolonged problem solving by the officer in this case Pc Adam Crossan.”