Twelve charged in major drone prison smuggling operation

The U.S. Justice Department says 12 people are facing charges in a massive drone prison smuggling operation that prosecutors are calling one of the biggest of its kind in U.S. history. According to the reporting, court papers describe a sweeping conspiracy that involved six drones used across 10 prisons and 38 separate drops, in which the defendants allegedly flew contraband into the facilities. The items dropped in are said to have included drugs, cell phones, tobacco and even weapons such as blades that inmates could then use to try to escape. Investigators also documented a location the defendants called the lab, said to be a former daycare center, where they stored the drones used in the scheme. The operation is said to have lasted nearly three years before the indictment, and the Bureau of Prisons, which has a drone alert system meant to notify staff when a drone is nearby, is taking action to try to stop the flights.

The U.S. Justice Department says 12 people are facing charges in a massive drone prison smuggling operation, in a case that prosecutors are describing as one of the biggest of its kind in U.S. history. According to the reporting, the announcement came alongside court papers that lay out a sweeping conspiracy and explain how the authorities say the scheme was carried out over an extended period.

The scale of the alleged operation is laid out in numbers in the charging documents. According to the report, the case involved six drones that were used across 10 prisons and a total of 38 drops, in which the defendants are alleged to have flown contraband over prison walls and released it for inmates inside the facilities to collect.

The material said to have been smuggled in went well beyond ordinary contraband. According to the reporting, the items dropped into the prisons included drugs, cell phones and tobacco, as well as weapons such as blades that, investigators said, inmates could then use in an attempt to escape, raising the stakes of the smuggling beyond the usual prison black market.

The investigation also identified a base of operations for the group. According to the report, the defendants are said to have used a location they called the lab, described as a former daycare center, where they stored the drones used in the scheme, and which investigators characterized as the hub from which the flights were organized.

The alleged conspiracy is said to have run for a long stretch before charges were brought. According to the reporting, the operation lasted nearly three years before the indictment was finally handed up, pointing to a sustained effort that authorities say repeatedly defeated efforts to keep contraband out of the targeted prisons.

The case has also drawn attention to the defenses meant to stop such flights. According to the report, the Bureau of Prisons has a drone alert system that is supposed to notify staff when a drone is nearby, and the agency is now taking action to try to stop the drones, even as questions remain about how the operation managed to continue for as long as it did.

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