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Contraband

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Drone Smuggling Ring Hit 10 Prisons, DOJ Charges
Contraband · FAA

Drone Smuggling Ring Hit 10 Prisons, DOJ Charges

A federal grand jury in Georgia indicted twelve people for running drones over the walls of ten federal prisons in eight states, dropping drugs, cell phones, and saw blades at least 38 times. Prosecutors call it the largest federal case to date built around coordinated drone smuggling into prisons. The 17-count indictment, unsealed June 24…

South Carolina Moves to Criminalize Prison Drone Drops
DJI

South Carolina Moves to Criminalize Prison Drone Drops

South Carolina lawmakers are closing a gap that’s been frustrating law enforcement for years. A bill dubbed the South Carolina Drone Regulation and Public Safety Act cleared a Senate committee unanimously this week, following a unanimous House vote last month, as the South Carolina Daily Gazette reported. If it becomes law, the state will finally…

Contraband is entering Georgia prisons from Drones— again
DJI

Flock’s Jail Drone Wants to Expand to 19 County-Wide

NPR caught up with the Fulton County Jail drone story this week, three weeks after we covered the original Flock Safety deployment in detail. The national coverage matters because it surfaces two details that weren’t in the March announcement: Sheriff Patrick Labat’s plan to expand from one rooftop drone to 19 drones positioned across Fulton…

Tennessee asks for $1.7M in drone detection tech as prison contraband airdrops keep coming
Police

Tennessee asks for $1.7M in drone detection tech as prison contraband airdrops keep coming

Tennessee Department of Correction Commissioner Frank Strada told state lawmakers on Tuesday that drone-delivered contraband is no longer an occasional annoyance. It is one of the most significant security threats his facilities face. His department is requesting $1.7 million in funding for drone detection technology to address what he called a necessary response to an…

Prison Drone Drops Turn Night Skies Into Smuggling Lanes
Contraband

Prison Drone Drops Turn Night Skies Into Smuggling Lanes

A single drone drop at South Carolina’s Lee Correctional Institution recently made national headlines, not because of technical sophistication, but because of its grocery list, as WISTV reports. Crab legs, steak, Old Bay seasoning, and marijuana were delivered neatly from the night sky, a reminder that modern drone misuse does not always involve espionage or…

Oklahoma Prisons Step Up Drone Defenses After 6,000 Phones Smuggled In
Oklahoma

Oklahoma Prisons Step Up Drone Defenses After 6,000 Phones Smuggled In

Drones have become a serious and persistent security threat inside Oklahoma state prisons, fundamentally changing how contraband enters correctional facilities, as Koko 5 ABC reports. According to the Oklahoma Department of Corrections, drones have been used to deliver illegal items into prisons for at least the past four to five years, steadily replacing older smuggling…

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