Bungling crooks filmed themselves packing Kinder Eggs with drugs
Remarkable footage emerged this week of two bungling drug dealers and a mystery accomplice packing Kinder Eggs with pills and cutting up cannabis before attaching them to a drone and flying them into Perth Prison.
The trio, who had no idea they were filming themselves, also failed in their attempt to smuggle drugs into the prison when the device crash landed near the jail’s ‘C’ hall - and the contraband, worth almost £3000, along with an 18-minute long video, were recovered.
It led to the identification of 32-year-old Paul Reilly who was jailed for a total of 33 months at Perth Sheriff Court this week.
He admitted being concerned in the supply of cannabis resin, cannabis, buprenorphine and etizolam on September 22, 2017.
He also pled guilty to failing to turn up for an earlier court hearing.
His previous co-accused, 34-year-old Michael Martin, whose brother was serving a sentence at the Edinburgh Road prison at the time, was given a 12-month sentence.
He was found guilty after trial in June of supplying cannabis resin to inmates by remote drone on September 22 last year.
The identity of the third man is still unknown.
Depute fiscal John Malpass told the court that a prison officer routinely patrolling the grounds heard a “buzzing noise” overhead but couldn’t see anything as it was dark.
Shortly afterwards he spotted the drone lying on the ground with a cellophane package next to it.
A camera attached to Reilly Paul
the device had a micro SD card in it.
Mr Malpass added: “Police officers viewed the footage and it is clear that the drone had been switched on to try it out but it was recording without the knowledge of the suspects.”
The footage showed the accused Reilly, wearing gloves, filling the recovered Kinder Eggs with white pills and cutting up cannabis resin into square blocks, before wrapping them in cellophane.
One of the dopey suspects had also left the property and gone outside and the number 66 could “clearly be seen” on the door.
PC Nicholas Schembri (38), one of the witnesses at Martin’s trial, said he didn’t think the men were “aware” the drone was actually filming them at the time.
And depute fiscal Michael Sweeney commented: “If there was an award for the movie with the most inept director, it would have been won by the accused [Martin].”
Maximum prison values for the recovered drugs (with the street values in brackets) were:
Cannabis, which weighed more than 62 grammes - £1350 (£270); 128 etizolam and buprenorphine tablets - £1430 (£272).
Mr Malpass added: “Given the fact that the package was found next to the crashed drone - and the method involved was a clear attempt to supply drugs into the prison environment drugs officers had no hesitation in concluding that the three persons shown in the footage were acting in concert in the supplying of controlled drugs.”
Solicitor Gerry Considine said his client, from Oak Road, Cumbernauld, had been fighting his drug addiction for several years and while on remand had been in touch with Narcotics Anonymous.
He pointed out that part of the charge which alleged that Reilly had been involved in the supply of the drugs at Perth Prison had been deleted.
Passing sentence, Sheriff Lindsay Foulis said he took that into account.
But he added: “The observation I would make is that as the packaging of drugs involved a drone, it was perhaps obvious that anyone with some knowledge of drugs practice that perhaps the supply in this particular instance was certainly not run-ofthe-mill.”
Reilly’s jail term was backdated to June 18 when he was first remanded.