Private prison operator Serco has apologised after an inmate in Auckland went viral with a video of guards taken behind bars using a smuggled cellphone. 

It’s the latest in a string of similar incidents at prisons across the country, ranging from inmates filming fights to running drug cartels, as authorities battle to keep smuggled smartphones out of cells. 

TikTok user @caposnake, understood to be linked to the King Cobras, enjoyed a brief but highly successful stint on the social media platform before staff at Kohuora Auckland South Corrections Facility seized his phone. 

One video posted on Wednesday had already garnered nearly 500,000 views by the weekend and 26,000 likes. It showed staff at the high-security prison in Wiri on a landing as they undertook cell searches. 

That search appears not to have uncovered the phone, because the account posted another video a day later with a montage of prisoners in the yard. 

An earlier video, posted a week ago, has a similar montage of inmates relaxing in different areas of the prison, including a basketball court and dining hall. 

A video filmed of a staff search inside Auckland South Corrections Facility at Wiri went viral. Now the prisoner's phone has been confiscated. Photo / caposnake 

The bio of the account reads “Eat, Sleep, S**t, Repeat”. 

A spokeswoman for Serco – the British multinational which runs Auckland South – responding to questions about the TikTok account, confirmed a prisoner used a mobile phone from within a cell to record a staff search. 

“The phone was found and removed from the prisoner,” the spokeswoman said in a statement. 

Prisoners who break the rules are liable for internal disciplinary charges and can also be investigated by police, the statement said. 

“There are frequent searches across the prison to find and remove contraband from prisoners. 

“We appreciate that any images of prisoners online will be of particular concern to the victims of their offending, and we’re sorry for any distress caused.” 

The Herald has blurred the video to protect the identities of the staff, but at one point you can see an officer appearing to look straight at the inmate who is filming from his cell. 

Serco said contraband is a challenge facing all New Zealand prisons. 

“We have robust search, detection and deterrent processes. These include searching everyone who enters the prison, using technological and personal-based detection mechanisms, a full search of prisoners on entry, mobile phone detector dogs and regular cell searches.” 

Other videos on the account show groups of prisoners relaxing in the yards or other areas of the prison at Wiri. 

In recent years, several prison officers have been prosecuted for smuggling contraband including phones. 

In 2017, an officer who was working at Mt Eden prison when it was operated by Serco was sentenced to home detention for smuggling tobacco, cellphones and prepaid calling cards to inmates in 2015. 

Several people were charged with corruption and bribery after an investigation into corrupt guards at Rimutaka Prison in Wellington last year. 

Earlier this year, former Spring Hill prison officer Scott Topham was jailed for two years for smuggling drugs into the Waikato prison in exchange for $3200 from a Black Power member. 

Last month, a member of the Comancheros admitted his role in using smuggled cellphones to orchestrate a 200kg meth import from behind bars at Rimutaka. 

And two years ago, the Herald revealed prisoners at Paremoremo were filming themselves behind bars and posting the clips to TikTok.