LONG-CZ Mobile Phone - 18gms, 68mm long, 23mm wide

What! Seriously! When was it launched? Where is it available? Relax. Read. A mobile phone with super specifications such as 18grams weight, 68mm long and 23mm wide is the new hot pick on many Irish buy and sell websites. The handset is marketed as the 'world's smallest phone' and has become the most popular phone device for prison inmates.

The LONG-CZ handset available online for just £25 is entirely made of plastic and can be smuggled into prisons and stored 'internally' without being detected by scanners.

In 2008, many Irish jails had installed Body Orifice Security Scanners - nicknamed BOSSwhich allowed officers to detect internally-concealed drugs and phones without conducting body searches. Interestingly, the finger-sized LONG-CZ is being advertised online and on second-hand shops as 'Beat the Boss phones'.

According to a prison source,jail inmates are snapping up the plastic mobile phones in a bid to fool the scanner and the micro-phones are overtaking the so-called 'key fob' phones as the most popular handset in Irish jails.

The source said: 'The phones are easy to smuggle in internally, particularly by prisoners on day release. The prisoners swallow the SIM card so it can't be picked up and retrieve it later.’

BOSS was a huge help in security checks for prison officers as it could scans the subject's body cavities in a non-intrusive manner. It also helped in cutting down the number of illicit handsets in jail premises. Nearly 805 mobile phones were seized in 2013 and 728 in 2014.

Wondering if LONG-CZ comes to India or maybe it is already there. Don’t worry, CIOL will keep you posted. Wink.