Justice Department announces arrests in ‘sophisticated’ drone network used to deliver meth, phones and weapons to prisons

By Jason Morris, CNN

(CNN) — The Justice Department has announced charges in a “sophisticated” criminal operation that it says used high-powered drones to deliver weapons, drugs, cell phones and escape tools into prisons in east coast states.

US Attorney William Keyes in the middle district of Georgia, along with the Federal Bureau of Prisons and FBI investigators in Atlanta, say the rogue drone operation led out of a former daycare in Macon, Georgia was a staging ground where multiple drones were launched on covert missions to deliver the contraband by air to 10 federal prisons at night.

“We’re here to announce the unsealing of an indictment that charges the most sophisticated and sprawling criminal enterprise using drones to introduce contraband into the federal prison system ever charged by the Department of Justice,” Keyes said during a press conference Wednesday.

The 17-count federal indictment alleges the group used at least six separate drones to deliver a wide-ranging bazaar of contraband to federal prisons at least 38 times, including methamphetamine, synthetic marijuana, suboxone, cocaine, cell phones, tobacco, cigarettes, drug-infused papers, and even saw blades “designed and intended to be used as weapons and to facilitate escape.”

Prosecutors say in the indictment that inmates inside the prisons used illegal phones to help guide the drone pilots on the outside, sometimes even sending maps in real time to help the pilots deliver trash bags and astroturf stuffed with weapons, various narcotics, and cell phones.

In some cases, prison corrections officers recovered bags stuffed with drugs and other contraband just minutes after the drones landed, and in other cases the drops vanished before authorities located them, according to law enforcement.

“The allegations outlined in this indictment describe a coordinated criminal effort involving heavy payload drones to introduce dangerous contraband into federal prisons across multiple states,” William K. Marshall III, Director of the BOP said in Macon on Wednesday.

“Activity of this nature threatens the safety of everyone who lives and works inside our facilities and will not be tolerated” he said.

The Bureau of Prisons used drone detection systems which alerted authorities with data including make and models and flight launch locations of the unmanned aerials to help pinpoint those involved in the high-tech scheme, which law enforcement says they tracked between 2023 and 2026.

On June 10, a grand jury in the Middle District of Georgia indicted twelve defendants on federal charges including trafficking for drug and firearms distribution. They are accused of spearheading the sophisticated drone-smuggling scheme at ten federal prisons throughout Georgia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi.

“They’re fast moving, they’re remote, it’s a challenge for law enforcement,” Keyes said. “But I think that’s what this case demonstrates is that we are at the speed to tackle this problem. This is a very sophisticated investigation, a very complex problem.”

Earlier this year, 21 attorneys general launched a multi-state effort to combat what they described as an “alarming” rise in drones illegally dropping contraband into prisons, including narcotics, weapons, and cell phones. In a letter to the Trump administration, the coalition of AG’s said that, under current federal law, only a narrow set of law enforcement agencies are “authorized to detect, track and mitigate unauthorized drones. Meaning, correctional officials often lack the legal authority and the necessary tools to intervene in real time.”

In May, White House officials acknowledged that in the past, the federal government “did not move with sufficient urgency” to confront the surge in drones ferrying contraband into federal prisons.

In a letter sent to state attorneys general, the administration said that Trump’s Safer Skies Act — signed last December — marks the first time state and local agencies have been given proper resources to disable and disrupt rogue drones, by providing $500 million in FEMA grants, developing new FBI training programs, and launching a Department of Homeland Security office aimed at curbing the threat.

On Wednesday, FBI Atlanta Special Agent in Charge Marlo Graham said that drones delivering contraband remains a serious public safety issue for law enforcement that puts both the prisons and communities in danger.

“To put this issue into perspective, some state and federal prison-drones smuggling contraband have been so frequent that the facilities look like a small airport in the evening,” Graham said.

CNN’s Stuart Clark contributed to this report.

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