Skilled drone pilots headhunted by gangs to make prison deliveries

Skilled drone pilots are being headhunted by gangs to make Amazon Prime-style deliveries of drugs, weapons and even tomato ketchup to prison. 

Greater Manchester Police said organised crime groups are recruiting specialists to fly items directly into cell windows, including drugs, weapons and mobile phones. 

In some cases, the force said, several kilograms of contraband is being smuggled in at a time and it has become a 'constant battle' to keep up with their methods. 

Police believe the smuggling has led to an increase in violence amongst inmates, and as a result, Greater Manchester Police has stepped up its crackdown on organised crime groups, The Guardian reported.

Detective Superintendent Andy Buckthorpe told the newspaper advanced drone technology was making it more difficult to keep up with smuggling.

'Drone technology is getting bigger and better so the payloads are getting bigger,' he said. 'Drones now are able to fly straight to the window of the cell.'

Speaking outside HMP Forest Bank, a category B men's private prison in Salford, Buckthorpe said organised crime gangs were using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to fly drugs into prisons across the country, not just in their own area.

DCI Chris McClellan, of the north-west regional organised crime unit, said criminals were looking for people with a 'certain skillset to fly these drones' and that 'if you show yourself as proficient in that, there's demand for that individual'.

McClellan said police recently recovered a drone carrying a 7kg payload which contained mobile phones, drugs and tobacco.

Drugs usually fetch between three and five times their street value in prison meaning smuggling drugs is a lucrative business. 

One officer told The Guardian that cannabis would sell for 'hundreds of pounds', adding 'people get slashed all the time for it'.

At a meeting on Wednesday, officers were told that HMP Forest Bank had a 'significant number' of smuggling offences in the last year.

In the five months up to September, police recorded more than 350 crimes at the prison including violence and public order offences.