Drone technology hijacked by drug pushers for direct access to prisons

LONDON: While Amazon and the British government are looking into how to use drones to deliver parcels to customers, criminals are already exploiting the technology to send drugs to accomplices in prison.

Police said on Monday they recovered two drones carrying mobile phones and drugs near London’s Pentonville prison and have set up a special task force - Operation Airborne - to catch offenders trying to get contraband into the jail. In the early hours of Saturday, police saw a man acting suspiciously near the prison. He ran away, dropping two bags containing drugs and mobile phones and managed to evade arrest, according to a police statement.

Next day, police found a drone that had crashed after being tracked flying over Pentonville.

They were later alerted to another drone being flown at low altitude toward the prison. The unmanned aircraft was stopped in mid-flight by a police officer and a package containing large amounts of drugs and two mobile phones was recovered from it.