Maryland law enforcement officials have successfully found and identified two men who tried to fly drugs and porn DVDs into the Cumberland prison, marking the first incident of drone contraband in Maryland.
The two men were stopped along Highway 220 near the prison and were taken into custody after police searched their car, finding a quadcopter drone, synthetic marijuana, pornography, a loaded handgun, tobacco and other materials. The drone itself was the Yuneec Typhon, which normally costs around $1,300.
"They were apprehended close to their vehicle that was located on property adjacent to the North Branch Correctional Institution," said Robert Thomas, a spokesperson for the Maryland State Police, in an interview with Ars Technica. "A group of investigators were working in that area the night of the incident and apprehended them with their vehicle. In doing so, one tried to flee and ran into a dumpster and tried to hide in a dumpster, and the other was captured at the scene."
While police did find a loaded gun in the car, it is unlikely that the gun would have been flown into the prison by drone because of the fact that it is too heavy and would have weighed the drone down. The two men involved have been charged with a number of crimes, including illegal possession of a firearm and the illegal possession of drugs with the intent of distributing of those drugs.
Of course, this isn't the first time that something like this has happened. A similar incident took place in Ohio in July, in which a drop of drugs and tobacco resulted in a massive brawl followed by a strip-search of 205 inmates. Two men were also arrested earlier this year after attempting to fly drugs illegally from Mexico to Southern California.
While police were able to stop any incident from taking place this time, the arrests do raise interesting concerns. We often focus on the use of drones for things like package delivery from services like Amazon and Google, however, drones can also be used for illegal purposes.
Via: Ars Technica
