A UK court has handed a total of 31 years in jail time to a seven people who operated drone deliveries of banned items to a Manchester area prison, including drugs that a testifying expert estimated were worth as much as £1.7 million ($2.16 million).
The series of drone deliveries to the UK’s Risley prison in Warrington continued from August to December 2020 – a rather astonishing length of time, given the closed-circuit TV (CCTV) coverage that recorded everything going on around the facility. During that five-month period, a total of 20 flights transported contraband to inmates participating in the scheme, which in addition to smuggling cannabis and heroin into the clink also airlifted mobile phones, SIM cards, and other prohibited items.
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Members of the group – which included two inmates – were sentenced Friday by Liverpool Crown Court to sentences ranging from nine months to nearly eight years, with the combined jolt totaling over 31. A UK expert who provided testimony estimated the maximum value of drugs delivered to the prison at £1.7 million on the internal black market – though the lower end of that speculated range was a somewhat less stunning £347,000.
More astonishing, however, was the time it took to halt the contraband flights once authorities realized something in the skies was afoul.
A first drone was spotted above the prison by officials on September 28, 2020, leading to cell searches that turned up banned items that had been delivered. Just over two weeks later, another craft was picked up by CCTV hovering in front of a window, where an inmate was filmed hauling in the packet it was dangling.
Those are what legal experts technically refer to as flaming evidence of crimes being committed. Still, it took spectacularly audacious – and stupid – aerial activity in late December before the clamps were definitively applied.
On December 28, a third drone was videoed in yet another delivery through a prison window. But it took the same UAV returning just 20 minutes later to make a second delivery before action was taken to halt the regular rotations. Final justice, however, took even longer in arriving.
Members of the group operating the drops from the outside were finally busted in a police raid last January, and caught in possession of four UAVs, various drugs, mobile phones, and cash.
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Despite avowals by the accused of having staged the 20 drone deliveries during what may strike some observers as a very long, particularly unperturbed period before the December CCTV footage made future prison drops too risky to attempt, UK law enforcement officials celebrated Friday’s sentencing as the coda to remarkably effective policing efforts.
“This is a fantastic result – not only have we removed seven members of a dangerous organized crime group, but we have stopped the supply of a large quantity of class A and B drugs as well as other prohibited items circulating within our prisons,” Cheshire Police Serious and Organized Crime Unit sergeant Mark Naylor told local media. “This result could not have been achieved without the support of officers at HMP Risley. Without their cooperation, we would not have been able to bring these individuals to face justice. While this gang is behind bars, our fight against illegal drugs and organized crime continues and as part of this we need support from local residents.”
Remote controller-equipped criminals beware – but no need to rush it.
Image: Karl Greif/Unsplash
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