A man has used an unmanned four-engined helicopter in an attempt to fly drugs and a mobile phone into a maximum-security prison in Melbourne, police allege. It is believed to be the first time an unmanned small aircraft has been used in an attempt to smuggle drugs into an Australian jail.
In what is a hi-tech version of throwing drugs over prison walls, drones have been used to smuggle contraband into US and Canadian prisons, as the devices have become relatively cheap on the market.
Victoria Police spokeswoman Belinda Batty said police and and its helicopter unit, Air Wing, were called to the Metropolitan Remand Centre in Ravenhall, in western Melbourne, about 4.30pm yesterday.
Corrections staff are believed to have seen or heard the machine hovering over the facility during the last visits session at the prison, which houses 700 male inmates.
A 28-year-old man was allegedly operating the aircraft from a vehicle he was parked in with a woman near the facility. He was trying to deliver the drugs and the phone over one of the jail’s perimeter walls to an inmate.
Police arrested and charged the man, after which Corrections Victoria prison officers reportedly searched the prison and interviewed an inmate.
Victoria Police have yet to say what charges the man has been bailed to face in court.
Photo: John Torcasio
Source: Daily Mail