For most drone pilots, a flight ends with a smooth landing and maybe some great footage. For one Florida man, it ended with an 81-year prison sentence.
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Newly published figures are offering an idea of just how enormous the problem of drone use to deliver contraband to prisons around the world has become, showing nearly 100 suspected UAV drops made to a single Canadian jail last year alone.
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Law enforcement officials in Ohio have compiled a sufficiently solid case against three suspects to secure their indictment for having flown drones to provide inmates in multiple prisons around the state with narcotics and other contraband items.
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All evidence indicates that 2022 was a veritable boom year in the increasing traffic of drones flown to drop contraband into prisons around the world, with December closing out with reports of another suspected UAV delivery to a jail in Canada.
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A pair of men has been arrested and held by police in Georgia on charges they flew contraband – including 280 grams of meth and other drugs – into a state prison with a drone.
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A Texas man has been charged for allegedly flying a DJI Inspire drone loaded with drugs and other contraband into a Fort Worth prison.
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In another attempt to battle the spreading problem of drones transporting contraband to prison inmates around the globe, France is soliciting bids from companies to install anti-UAV defense systems in many of the nation’s penitentiaries.
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In a less than genius move, a Scottish gang filmed themselves with the drone, they were going to use to fly drugs into prison. The drone crashed on the prison grounds and was picked up by a guard who found all the incriminating footage, including faces, a house number and a car that belonged to them.
With the potential of drones growing every day, more and more uses are found for them to complete tasks more efficiently. A couple in Riverside County, California abused the use of their drone as they delivered drugs to clients in a parking lot from their own house. The man and woman have since been arrested and are both facing jail time as a result of their actions.
Police have discovered a drone with a package containing contraband on the roof of an Ahuntsic elementary school in Montreal, Canada. The unmanned aerial device was found with a package containing marijuana, tobacco, cell phones, SIM cards, lighters and glue. The package was attached to the drone with a cord.
In England, ten people, all from the West Midlands, have been charged with using drones on a large scale to smuggle drugs and phones into prisons. The eight men and two women have been charged with three counts of conspiracy to supply drugs, psychoactive substances and banned items.
A gang in England who used a drone equipped with fishing lines to smuggle £370,000 ($495,000 USD) worth of contraband including drugs, phones, and a Freeview box into prisons are jailed for 28 years. In total, the gang had carried out nearly 50 drone flights and ‘throw-overs’ into British jails. Among the items they delivered was drugs but also tools, phones and a TV box. Their drone deliveries came to an end after prison officers found a package containing cocaine. the eight gang members face prison time of more than 24 years.
Australian newspaper ABC News reported that a drone has been caught on CCTV dropping what seems to be contraband into Lithgow’s prison in NSW. Last Monday a member of the public alerted the prison staff to the drone flying in the vicinity of the Lithgow Correctional Centre.