Drone smuggling at this Manchester prison is 'like ordering a Chinese,' says a former inmate

A drone smuggling drugs, a cellphone, and SIM cards crashed in a Manchester, U.K. prison on Friday—but it’s hardly the first incident of its kind.

Prison officials said they would increase security after finding a drone and the contraband on the grounds of H.M.P. Manchester, known as Strangeways, a high security prison holding 1,200 inmates. “It’s like ordering a Chinese,” an unnamed former inmate told the Manchester Evening News. “It’s that easy.”

The inmate said security cameras at the prison don’t point up, so it’s not very difficult for drones to spirit in contraband. “Drones have been used to get phones and drugs into Strangeways for about a year,” he said. “It’s rife. Someone parks up outside the prison in a van with a drone with a camera on it.”

The Ministry of Justice reported in September that nine prison drone smuggling attempts had been detected during the first five months of the year in England and Wales.

New legislation is being debated in the country that would make it illegal to land a drone in a prison or drop contraband into one. Offenders would face a two-year sentence.

Using drones to get into prisons is also becoming more common here across the pond—a drone carrying blades, a cellphone, and drugs was found in an Oklahoma prison last month.