Scots prisoners have been caught with more than 67,000 pills, 11kgs of cannabis and 2.4kgs of heroin in the past three years alone.
And more than 1,000 weapons – many of them home-made – and 1,400 mobile phones have also been seized since 2011 and some 120 gallons of alcohol have been confiscated in the past two years.
The figures are all the more disturbing as the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) has tried to crack down on the extent of smuggling into jail.
The SPS, responding to a Freedom of Information request, said 67,334 ‘miscellaneous tablets’ had been seized by officials – an average of eight each for the 7,845 inmates.
As well as pills, 2,469 grams of heroin, 1,002 grams of cocaine, 10,712 grams of cannabis and 820 grams of amphetamines were found.
HMP Aberdeen, Shotts and Edinburgh all topped lists for the most drugs being smuggled in.
Aberdeen prison, which closed earlier this year, had 199.87 grams of cocaine seized by officials since 2011.
Scottish Conservative justice spokeswoman Margaret Mitchell said: “It is impossible to stop absolutely everything getting into jails.
“But the sheer scale of these discoveries shows we have a huge problem.”
A spokesman for the Scottish Prison Service said: “SPS has invested heavily in additional resources to tackle the problems of addiction, violence and illicit items in prison.
“The ongoing success both in firstly preventing the importation of such items and subsequent discovery when things regrettably get through is down to the determination and professionalism of our staff.”