Seven jailed for using drones to airlift drugs into prisons

A judge at Birmingham Crown Court – who handed suspended jail terms and a community order to six others involved in the plot – said deterrent sentences were “essential” to help prevent similar offending.

An earlier trial was told drone pilots, drivers and look-outs conspired with prisoners to smuggle drugs into seven jails, including HMP Birmingham and HMP Liverpool.

A total of 11 drones, including some which had crashed, were seized during police inquiries into flights which also targeted HMP Wymott in Lancashire, HMP Hewell, in Worcestershire, HMP Risley in Cheshire, and Oakwood and Featherstone jails in Staffordshire.

Passing sentence on a total of 13 defendants convicted of conspiracy charges, Judge Simon Drew QC said: “Each of you falls to be sentenced for your part in conveying controlled drugs, mobile phones and Sim cards into prisons up and down the country.

“The method you chose to do this was both carefully planned and executed. Each of you played a part in a wider conspiracy which resulted in approximately 100 separate deliveries.

“This was a sophisticated commercial operation and due to the high value placed on drugs and mobile phones in prisons, designed to make those of you who ran the operation hundreds of thousands of pounds in profit.”

Judge Drew said drug and mobile phone use in prisons had caused heightened levels of violence, an increase in self-harm and deaths, as well as allowing witness intimidation and illegal financial transactions.

The judge told the plotters: “I have no doubt each one of you knew exactly what you were getting involved in.”

Gang leader Lee Anslow, who was serving a sentence at HMP Hewell, was found with digital scales and £20,000 worth of cannabis in his cell after police smashed the network.

The 31-year-old smiled at the public gallery after being jailed for 10 years, as the judge described him as “effectively one of the key operation directors” involved in at least 23 drone flights despite being behind bars.

Drone pilot Brandon Smith, 24, from Kingsbury Road, Tipton, was jailed for seven years, while 29-year-old Shane Hadlington, from Sycamore Lodge, Oldbury, was ordered to serve a 51-month sentence.

Prison inmate Paul Ferguson, 38, was jailed for four years and nine months, while 28-year-old Stefan Rattray, also a serving prisoner, was jailed for four-and-a-half years.

Paul Payne, 33, from Broad Street in Coseley, West Midlands, and Justin Millington, 24, of no fixed address, were given prison terms of 44 months and 40 months respectively.

Millington was arrested outside HMP Hewell in January 2017 with a UAV carrying cannabis worth £3,000, cocaine hydrochloride and synthetic drugs valued at almost £10,000.

Data recorded by the drones showed where and when they had been flown, allowing officers to link prison drops to same-day practice flights carried out near gang members’ homes.

Mobile phone evidence also allowed detectives to piece together contact between conspirators receiving packages inside the jails and those operating drones nearby.

Commenting after the case, Detective Inspector Gareth Williams, of West Midlands Police, said around £110,000 worth of drugs had been recovered from 11 drones.

“A modest estimate would be potentially £500,000 worth of drugs were flown into prisons.”

Mr Williams said Anslow – the nephew of a drug dealer who escaped from a prison van in 2012 – and other senior members of the gang had regarded themselves as “untouchable” as they orchestrated the drone drops.

The officer said of Anslow: “He was the key player in this. Not only was he organising drone flights into the prisons that he was in, he was also speaking to other prisoners, such as Paul Ferguson in HMP Risley, to organise flights there as well.”

Four defendants received suspended six-month prison terms.

They were Stella Deakin, 41, of Boundary Hill, Dudley; Callum McDonough, 25, from Shenley Field Road, Northfield, Birmingham; Jake Blewitt, 21, from Highfield Road, Tipton, and 21-year-old Dwayne Tinker, of Lindridge Drive, Minworth, West Midlands.

Richard Harrabin, 28, from Perton Grove, Weoley Castle, Birmingham, was given an 18-month suspended sentence.

Ryan Greaves, 21, from Kimberley Walk, Minworth, was given a 12-month community order.

Two other men are due to be sentenced next month.