#Prisonworld News – Drones Dropping Drugs Like It’s Hot in Prison Yards
via CBS News
MANSFIELD, Ohio — Officials say a drone has dropped a package of drugs into an Ohio prison yard while inmates were outside, sparking a fight.
The package was dropped July 29 at the Mansfield Correctional Institution, about 65 miles southwest of Cleveland. A spokeswoman for the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction tells the Mansfield News Journal it contained almost a quarter of an ounce of heroin, over 2 ounces of marijuana and more than 5 ounces of tobacco.
Officials say video footage shows the drone over recreation yards immediately before a fight began. An investigation determined the drone dropped a package intended for an inmate on the north recreation yard, and it was thrown over a fence to the south recreation yard. The inmates were separated and searched. No injuries were reported.
Brian Hearing, co-inventor of a drone detection device called “Drone Shield,” told CBS News earlier this year that he’s been fielding calls from prisons reporting that drone use to smuggle in contraband “is increasing with the availability and awareness of the capabilities of drones.”
Hearing’s Drone Shield is being used by some prisons to intercept the remote-controlled copters before they can deliver the goods.
Last November, four suspects were arrested for flying a DJI Spektrum DX6i hexacopter attempting to smuggle tobacco into Calhoun State Prison, in Morgan, Georgia. And a year before, a drone was spotted – potentially dropping off drugs for inmates – at a jail in Quebec.
