Seven members of a gang that used drones to fly more than £500,000 worth of drugs into prisons across the UK have been jailed. The group was responsible for 55 drone deliveries between April 2016 and June 2017, in what police described as the biggest conspiracy of its kind ever seen in the country.
Sentences handed down at Birmingham Crown Court ranged from three to ten years, with five other gang members receiving suspended sentences. The drones carried cannabis, synthetic cannabis, amphetamines, crack cocaine and heroin to inmates' windows, targeting prisons in Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Worcestershire, Warrington, Lancashire and Liverpool.
Passing sentence, Judge Simon Drew QC said the operation was a sophisticated commercial enterprise designed to generate hundreds of thousands of pounds in profit. He noted that the high value placed on drugs and mobile phones inside prisons had contributed to increased violence, self-harm and deaths, as well as facilitating witness intimidation and illegal financial transactions.
Detective Inspector Gareth Williams of the Prison Investigation Team called it a landmark case and the biggest drone drug smuggling racket into prisons ever seen in the UK. He explained that a drone flier, assisted by one or two others, would speak to an inmate on a contraband phone to guide the drone, with the attached parcel hooked off using sticks.
Among those jailed were ringleader Lee Anslow, 31, a serving prisoner at HMP Hewell, who received ten years; drone pilot Brandon Smith, 24, jailed for seven years; and Paul Payne, 33, sentenced to three years and eight months. Other defendants received sentences ranging from three years and four months to four years and nine months, while several others were given suspended sentences or a community order.
