The authorities charged nearly two dozen people with taking part in schemes over five years beginning in 2019 to deliver drugs and other contraband to inmates in Georgia state prisons.
A network of current and former Georgia inmates used drones to smuggle drugs and other contraband into state prisons, federal prosecutors said Wednesday in announcing charges against nearly two dozen people.
Twenty-three people were charged in two separate indictments that were unsealed Wednesday. All except six of those charged were former or current inmates of the state’s prison system, federal prosecutors said.
Twenty-two people named in the indictments are charged with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute and to distribute marijuana and methamphetamine, which carries a statutory penalty of 10 years to life in prison, prosecutors said. The 23rd person was charged with possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute and possession of a firearm in furtherance of the drug trafficking crime, prosecutors said.
“These indictments identify networks of individuals determined to introduce into prisons controlled substances and other contraband that compromise the safety and security of individuals who are held in those facilities and those employed there, and further endanger members of the outside public,” said Jill E. Steinberg, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Georgia.
Both indictments were filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia.
Beginning as early as 2019, prosecutors said, inmates used contraband cellphones to communicate with the outside and to coordinate the sale of drugs, cellphones and other contraband that were to be airdropped via a drone onto a prison yard. Such activities carried on for about five years, until last month, prosecutors said.
The correspondence between the prisoners and their associates resulted in several charges of unlawful use of communication devices, the unsealed indictments show.
The smuggling schemes took place at several Georgia state prisons, prosecutors said, including Smith State Prison in Glennville and Telfair State Prison in McRae-Helena.
Text message chains and photographs included in the indictments provide a window into how the operations worked.
“I just need to know when you taking off and when the pack drop we will be on the yard when it drops you will hear us when we get it,” read one text sent by an inmate in January 2023.
“The target is directly in the middle of the yard,” the inmate added, before sending a screenshot of a Google Maps satellite view with a pin marking the drop spot.
Other exchanges show careful instructions by inmates of what quantities of contraband to send and how to seal packages.
Officials said that a task force consisting of multiple agencies at the federal, state and local levels took part in the investigation, which they named “Operation Night Drop.”
Ten drones and 21 firearms were seized in the investigation, officials said.
A lawyer listed in court documents for one defendant, Alan Hall, could not immediately be reached Wednesday. It was unclear if the other defendants had lawyers.
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