Corrections officers at a South Carolina jail intercepted a covert bundle dropped by a drone containing a choice of indulgent fare and banned substances.
Guards unwrapped the bundle to search out steak, marijuana, crab legs, an abundance of cigarettes, and to spice it up, a tin of Old Bay seasoning.
The illicit meal was dropped into the Lee Correctional Institution in Bishopville, S.C., by a drone, the South Carolina Department of Corrections stated on X on Monday, with the caption, “appears some of us had been planning an early vacation Old Bay crab boil and steak dinner together with their marijuana and cigarettes — all dropped by drone at Lee Cl.”
Prison officers stated they’re investigating and that no arrests have been made.
“I’m guessing the inmates who had been anticipating the bundle are crabby,” stated jail spokesperson Chrysti Shain, The Associated Press reported.
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Keeping contraband out of state prisons is an ongoing battle. Until drones got here into play, folks would throw or catapult gadgets, together with cellphones, medicine and different prohibited gadgets, over the fence till the fences had been raised and netting was added on high.
Flying a drone over a jail in South Carolina is a misdemeanour punishable by as much as 30 days in jail, whereas dropping contraband into a jail is a felony that may result in a 10-year jail sentence.
The drawback additionally persists in Canada. In February final 12 months, workers at Warkworth Institution, a medium-security jail southeast of Peterborough, Ont., seized an edged weapon, cellphones and equipment estimated to be price $24,000.
“This seizure was the results of a suspected drone drop,” Mike Shrider, Correctional Service Canada’s regional communications supervisor, stated.
It was the second reported drone incident on the jail that month. A couple of weeks prior, two folks had been arrested for flying a drone carrying hashish and cellphones, in response to the Ontario Provincial Police.
In Quebec and British Columbia, drone flyovers above prisons are additionally a daily incidence.
Statistics from Quebec’s public safety minister present workers reported 274 drones flying over provincial centres between January and March of this 12 months, barely greater than three per day. That doesn’t embrace the ten federally-managed prisons within the province.
The provincial figures present 195 of the 247 drones had been seen dropping packages. Most of them — 69 per cent — had been reported as seized. The province additionally seized 896 cellphones.
To attempt to fight the difficulty, the federal authorities in March introduced a pilot venture that can enable correctional workers to make use of radio-frequency jammers to dam wi-fi communication to drones and cellphones in federal and Quebec detention centres.
Meanwhile, in response to a 2023 report, drones made every day drops to all eight B.C. medium- and maximum-security establishments, generally delivering packages proper into outstretched palms by way of jail cell home windows, John Randle, regional president of the Union of Canadian Correctional Officers, informed Global News.
Frédérick Lebeau, the nationwide president of the union, stated the rise in drone drops in correctional amenities has been “exponential” in recent times.
He stated that if drops happen when inmates are within the yard, packages are rapidly snatched up and hidden in physique cavities or elsewhere. Drones are generally flown on to home windows the place inmates have dismantled the bars.
He stated the presence of contraband — together with medicine and weapons — can create money owed amongst inmates and permit prison networks to function, leading to elevated violence for detainees and corrections workers.
— With recordsdata from Global News, The Associated Press and The Canadian Press
© 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
