(GPB News) – Federal prosecutors in Macon say an indictment unsealed Wednesday is the largest to date involving the use of drones to smuggle illegal contraband into prisons.
The indictment by a grand jury in Georgia’s Middle District Court alleges at least 38 incidents where defendants used six large, high payload drones to deliver things like drugs, cellphones, hand tools and weapons to inmates at 10 federal prisons across eight Southern states.
The ring, alleged to have included people inside and outside the prisons, is said to have been centered in Macon at a defunct daycare center nicknamed “The Lab.”
“To put this issue into perspective, some state and federal prison drone smuggling contraband have been so frequent that the facility looked like a small airport in the evening,” said FBI-Atlanta Special Agent in Charge Marlo Graham.
Sentences for the charges faced by defendants range from 20 years to life in prison.
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