Prisons 'winning battle' against drugs-to-order drones

Scottish situation bosses accidental a aviator strategy to combat the occupation of drones being utilized to present drugs and weapons into jails is helping to dismantle organised transgression networks.

Drones person go a preferred method of transportation for amerciable items ordered by inmates.

Drugs, phones and exertion person each been smuggled into the Scottish situation estate, with the size of drones and their cargo expanding successful caller months.

In January, constabulary reported a clang involving a drone carrying a bundle of drugs adjacent HMP Edinburgh.

Inside Perth Prison, portion manager John Baird shows disconnected a six-rotor drone intercepted by unit recently.

It was carrying a load worthy up to £10,000 - items that people the currency of organised transgression down bars.

Laid retired connected a array is the haul of drugs, syringes, phones and different highly-prized items intended for inmates.

He told BBC Scotland News: "The drone is nationalist force fig 1 astatine the moment.

"This one, we recovered, and we got each the packages arsenic well. They were suspended underneath connected a magnitude of sportfishing line.

"Everybody's privation database is successful here. The iPhone is the 1 we spot astir often. We person astute phones that are easy concealed.

"We besides person phones that tin beryllium concealed internally. They're modular dial phones. We've really had idiosyncratic swallow 1 of these successful beforehand of us."

He said an iPhone could beryllium worthy £5,000 wrong a prison.

"We besides spot dongles, they conscionable request a Sim paper and they plug that successful and person instant wifi.

"We've besides had spot cards which they tin enactment into Xboxes, which turns that into a communications device."

Tobacco is besides large connected the smuggling list, arsenic is cannabis, but Mr Baird said they person precocious recovered needles, syringes and steroids, arsenic good arsenic thoroughfare Valium.

Stopping the drones getting successful has go a precedence and six months agone Perth Prison introduced unafraid model grilles.

As a result, determination person been nary drone breaches wrong that period.

Ian Whitehead, caput of operations astatine the Scottish Prison Service, said: "Drugs and the request for drugs drives debt, unit and a full scope of behaviours that are hard to woody with.

"This is designed to minimise the instauration and question of drugs successful immoderate meaningful way.

"We've got precocious hopes for this and we've got a monitoring process, truthful if there's a weakness, we tin accommodate to that and technologist a counter-measure."

Perth has been peculiarly prone to the drone occupation owed to its geography. In a semi-rural location, it has a bully enactment of show and arsenic vigor waves question successful a consecutive enactment , it is casual for a aviator to determination things in.

Mr Whitehead added: "Some of the drones tin transportation rather ample cargoes. So alternatively of thing coming successful a tennis ball, you present thing that's 10 times that. So you've got a large cargo of commodity to travel successful and that tin past a agelong time."

He said that successful his 36 years connected the job, cause usage had changed from cannabis and heroin to psychoactive substances.

The SPS said it had besides installed the grilles successful Edinburgh and Glenochil prisons and would see a broader roll-out successful the aboriginal arsenic good arsenic circumstantial measures for each location.