Prison Brawl Breaks Out Over Drone-Dropped Drugs
How Correctional Facilities Are Cracking Down on Drone Delivered Contraband
Drones have been one of the most interesting and useful technological developments of the last few decades. These gadgets – also known as UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) – fly over the sky via remote commands. Drones have more uses than you could count, like producing wicked aerial photography, providing disaster relief to communities in need, and so much more.
As drones surge in popularity, more peculiar ways to use them are being discovered. But one incident in an Ohio prison takes the cake for the world’s wildest drone story.
Things were running smoothly on one July afternoon at the Mansfield Correctional Institution until officers noticed about 75 inmates gathering in the yard. Fights broke out in the crowd, but this wasn’t your average prison brawl. Upon checking out the surveillance tapes, authorities learned what led to the fights.
A drone had flown over the prison and dropped a valuable package. It contained quite the stash: 65.4 grams of marijuana, 144.5 grams of tobacco, and 6.6 grams of heroin.
“Upon reviewing the cameras, it was determined that a drone passed over the recreation yards immediately before the fight began,” an incident report explained.
Naturally, this was a hard situation for authorities to control. Officers used pepper spray to calm the situation, and about 200 prisoners were strip-searched for any contraband following the incident. At least nine prisoners were placed in solitary confinement. Authorities finally got ahold of the package, and luckily, there were no reported injuries.
It’s A Bird, It’s A Plane, It’s… A Drone?
The incident in Ohio might not be as unique as you’d think. There have been many instances of drones flying over prison yards in recent years.
In 2017, a prison in British Colombia faced a similar incident. A drone dropped a package containing 59 grams of THC butter and tobacco – worth more than $26,000 – behind the walls of Matsqui Institution. Unlike what happened in Ohio, authorities were able to grab the package before any inmates could get their hands on it.
This also happens across the pond: two men in the U.K. were arrested for trying to use drones to smuggle over $60,000 worth of heroin, marijuana, and other drugs to multiple prisons in 2017.
Similar incidents have happened all over the world. In fact, smugglers in the U.K. and Wales were able to get contraband over prison walls 33 times in 2015. But as drones begin to create a challenge for prison security, institutions are coming up with ways to fight back.
In 2019, the Correction Service of Canada readied a $6 million-dollar plan to install drone detection equipment at six facilities. This was launched in response to several instances in which staff members found fragments of drones at prisons.
Many other countries have launched similar programs and have tightened laws surrounding drone use. In the United States, it’s illegal to fly drones near airports, near political events, over most national parks, or anywhere in New York City.
Drones can do some seriously cool things. But let’s hope that the gadgets are used to help society rather than cause fights and wreak havoc. Otherwise, we might find ourselves living in a real-life Black Mirror episode.
