Man caught trying to smuggle drugs into prison with drone
A DRONE was used in an attempt to smuggle drugs and mobile phones into a prison. The operator was caught by police hiding in nearby bushes and was using an iPad to control the drone.
Simeon Richards, 22, attached an orange and black football sock to the drone which contained the contraband he attempted to smuggle into HMP Parc in Bridgend.
Four packages were found to contain 399 buprenorphine tablets, around 30g of cannabis and 11 mobile phones and their chargers.
On May 20, the defendant, of Cardiff, was speaking on a mobile phone to inmates inside the prison who planned to pick up the parcels when it landed. But the drone came to the attention of security staff who contacted the police.
A sentencing hearing at Newport Crown Court on Thursday heard Richards was detected after police heard rustling in nearby bushes leading down to the M4.
They pursued the defendant who was later seen walking along the hard shoulder of the M4 near junction 36. He was arrested and an iPad was seized from his possession. On the tablet police found an application for DJI drones used to pilot the drone, which was picked up by the prison’s drone detection system.
Prosecutor Jac Brown said the value of the buprenorphine tablets were worth between £12,000 and £18,000 in a prison setting, the cannabis had a potential value between £2,240 and £6,720, while the phones were valued up to £11,000.
Following his arrest the defendant was interviewed but answered no comment.
Richards, of Deere Place, Ely, later pleaded guilty to attempting to conveying listed articles into prison. The court heard he had a previous conviction for possession with intent to supply cocaine for which he received a two year suspended prison sentence, which he was now in breach of.
Defence barrister Harry Baker said his client was struggling in prison while on remand in prison because he has a number of food allergies which were not catered for in the prison system.
He said the defendant was still being served food he was unable to eat.
Sentencing, Judge Richard Williams said: “The use of drugs and mobile phones in Her Majesty’s prisons is a scourge and a serous challenge to good order and discipline. This was an audacious and serious attempt disrupted by those charged with security.”
Richards was sentenced to 45 months imprisonment. The judge also activated 15 months of the suspended sentence, bringing the total sentence to five years imprisonment.