Drone Carrying Contraband Caught by Oklahoma State Penitentiary
Several states' Departments of Correction are looking into stopping prison-bound UAVs.
Oklahoma State Penitentiary staff found a downed drone Monday morning. The UAV had crashed into the business side of a razor wire fence. The things it carried, per the press release:
- Two 12 inch hacksaw blades-One cellphone-One cellphone battery-One hands-free device-Two packages of Newport Cigarettes-Two packages of Black & Mild cigars-Two tubes of super glue-One 5.3 ounce bag containing marijuana-One 0.8 ounce bag containing methamphetamine-One bag containing less than 1 gram of heroin
The UAV appears to be a Phantom drone — one of the more popular drone models, which can carry up to 200 grams — and dangled the contraband payload below it with fishing wire.
Alex Gerszewski, the Oklahoma Department of Corrections public information officer, tells Inverse this is the first drone incident involving a prison in the state. Last year, a drone dropped heroin and marijuana into an Ohio prison yard, but this hasn’t reached trend levels just yet. Still, Gerszewski says various states’ DOCs are working in concert to develop countermeasures and that the investigation into this drone’s origin is ongoing. Current theoretical defenses include a point-and-shoot device meant to jam radio signals.
In other misbehaving UAV news, a drone smashed into a West Hollywood power line Monday, leaving 700 South Californians without electricity. Fly smart, people.
