Drug dealer jailed for prison drone bid

● Woman found heroin in garden after aircraft crashed on way to city jail

A drug trafficker who tried to smuggle heroin into a prison by flying a drone over a builtup area has been jailed for more than five years in the first Scottish conviction of its kind.

John Grant lost control of the aircraft and it crashed with its load of drugs and mobile phones in a residential garden.

The grounded device also contained footage on its camera of Grant adjusting settings on the drone and GPS co-ordinates of his home address.

The drone was found by a woman in the Redhall area of Edinburgh who noticed a lot of string strewn around her back garden.

When she began to gather it up, a black sock attached to the string fell from the roof of her garden hut. She then found it was attached to a drone wedged between her hut and fence. She cut open the sock and found three mobile phones, two chargers and a haul of heroin and diazepam.

The High Court in Edinburgh heard that the heroin was worth £11,000 but its value would soar if it had successfully been delivered into prison.

Grant, 47, was identified from film recovered from the drone and a search of his home found a further half-kilo of heroin worth £48,000.

Advocate depute Jim Keegan said the heroin recovered was valued at £59,000 but more money could have been made out of it because of the premium payable in jail and its high purity.

Grant, formerly of Loganlea Terrace, in Edinburgh, admitted being concerned in the supply of heroin between 5 and 18 November last year.

He also admitted two breaches of Scottish prison legislation by attempting to fly the Class A drug and mobile phones into Saughton jail in Edinburgh on 5 November.

He also pled guilty to culpably and recklessly piloting “an unmanned aircraft system” at night with its aviation lights taped making it invisible to other aircraft to the danger of the public and other aircraft. Grant was on bail at the time of the offences.

A judge told Grant: “You have pled guilty to a series of serious charges.”

John Morris QC said his crimes were aggravated by attempting to introduce “drugs and other contraband into one of Her Majesty’s prisons”.

Mr Morris said that the flying of the drone at night was “reckless conduct in the extreme which could have had catastrophic consequences”.

The judge said Grant would have faced a prison term of eight years, but his sentence would be reduced following early guilty pleas.

Grant, a former mechanic, was previously jailed for 44 months for a drug trafficking offence.

Advocate depute Jim Keegan said that after the downed drone was recovered a memory card was found containing images and footage and GPS information.

The prosecutor said: “Footage from the early hours of 4 November showed the accused seated in his living room and operating a remote controller and an electronic tablet to adjust the drone’s settings.”

Film from the drone making flights over the Loganlea and Saughton areas of the city was also found.