Gang ‘delivered drugs to seven jails by drone’

A GANG used a drone to fly drugs and weapons into seven prisons and dangled contraband on fishing lines outside inmates’ windows, a court heard yesterday.

Lee Anslow, who was a prisoner at HMP Hewell in Worcestershire, conspired to set up deliveries at prisons around the country, flown in by a pilot on the outside, it was alleged.

When prison officers raided his cell they found fake food cans packed with cannabis, crack cocaine and SIM cards, which had all been drone-delivered.

He is charged with conspiring with four others to bring drugs, mobile phones and SIM cards into jail between April 2016 and June 2017.

Stella Deakin, alleged to have been the drone pilot, and inmates Shane Hadlington, Paul Ferguson and Stefan Rattray, are standing trial with Anslow at Birmingham Crown Court.

All five are also charged with bringing the zombie drug Mamba and other psychoactive drugs into British jails between May and June 2017.

The drone operator, Brandon Smith, 24, of Tipton, West Midlands, had already admitted his part in the conspiracy, jurors were told.

Prosecutors told jurors they would see telephone evidence suggesting Anslow was “organising drone deliveries throughout numerous prisons”, and that he was linked to jails and inmates in the case.

The Crown has alleged that parcels worth up to £20,000 a time at prison prices were delivered, often hanging from a fishing line tied to the drone, to cell windows, and sold on the inside.

Deakin, who is Hadlington’s girlfriend, was stopped in a car carrying a drone after a package was delivered to HMP Wymott, Lancs, where her partner was serving time.

Anslow, 31, Ferguson, 27, Deakin, 40, of Dudley, Hadlington, 29, of Oldbury, and Rattray, 28, of Dudley, deny all charges.

The trial, estimated to last six weeks, continues.