Drones continue to wreak havoc, this time by delivering a package of drugs into an Ohio prison yard. Said delivery then sparked a major prison fight.
The AP reports the incident happened July 29 at the Mansfield Correctional Institution, near Cleveland. Video footage shows the drone hovering over the prison’s recreations areas moments before the fight began. The package contained “almost a quarter of an ounce of heroin, over 2 ounces of marijuana and more than 5 ounces of tobacco.”
Sounds like a pretty impressive haul, though at least the drone wasn’t delivering any kind of weaponry, or had any kind of weaponry attached to itself. Too bad (well, good) that the package didn’t make it to its intended recipient in the north recreation yard, since it was tossed over into the south yard, either before or during the fight. Here’s a recap of what happened:
Two corrections officers called for assistance and ordered the inmates to stop fighting, according to the department. They used pepper spray to control the fight.
About 75 inmates in the north recreation yard and 130 on the south recreation yard were taken to the gyms, where they were strip-searched, run through a cell sensor and checked by a clinic. The nine people involved in the fight were placed in solitary confinement. No staff members or inmates were injured, the department said.
This same prison had been cracking down on contraband being thrown over prison fences. Who knew they’d be encouraging such innovation? Of course, the workaround doesn’t seem like the most effective one, but points for effort, and for making people worry about yet another way that drones can be used for ill.
(Via U.S. News)