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Drone's drug airdrop mission ends in failure for Irish prisoners

Contraband-laden quadcopter crashes in Dublin chokey's yard

An audacious quadcopter mission to deliver drugs to inmates at Dublin's Wheatfield Prison ended in failure earlier this week when the drone hit wires designed to prevent helicopter landings.

According to the Irish Independent, the drone crashed in the prison's yard at around 11am on Tuesday bearing its narcotic payload.

The stash was suspended from the chopper by a rope, and a group of prisoners who'd apparently been eagerly awaiting the delivery gathered round the vehicle as it crashed to the ground.

The suspected ringleader, "who is serving an eight year sentence for robbery" swallowed the drugs before screws could intervene, although he was whisked to solitary confinement to allow nature's natural course to deliver them to officers.

The operators outside the prison attempted to fly their machine to safety, but it was too badly damaged to escape.

A prison source said: "This isn't a toy. It was a high spec drone with a high spec camera through which the operators could monitor the route it was taking. They wouldn't have intended to land it in the prison, just hover over it until the inmates got their hands on the contraband."

The quadcopter's onboard memory card revealed the operators had already done a trial run of their illicit delivery service, and the Garda are now in pursuit of the perpetrators.

An Irish Prison Service source said: "It shows you the lengths people will go to get contraband into prisons but this has backfired on them. They have lost a very expensive quadcopter, will lose the suspected drugs and face disciplinary procedures as well as possible charges from the Garda investigation." ®

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