Police intercepted a drone and arrested two men that were trying to fly drugs, tobacco and porn into a state prison in Maryland, U.S., in what authorities are calling the first case of its kind.
The arrests, which took place on Saturday but were made public on Monday, happened near the Western Correctional Institution in Cumberland, after officers spotted a vehicle near the prison.
The vehicle's owners had been under surveillance for some time as they were suspected, along with one prison inmate, of plotting to use the unmanned drone to drop contraband into the prison.
Police found a drone, tobacco, synthetic marijuana, prescription narcotics, porn DVDs and a handgun. Authorities said the seized drone, which was a Yuneec Typhoon model, was big enough to carry everything apart from the gun.
Maryland's police chief expressed fear that a larger drone could be used to carry even more dangerous items.
"The use of these drones to bring this type of contraband into a facility is very, very troubling, and we're going to address it," Stephen Moyer, secretary of the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, told a news conference, according to the Associated Press.
Thaddeus Casimir Shortz, 25, of Knoxville, and Keith Brian Russell, 29, of Silver Spring, were arrested outside of the prison. One inmate was suspected of collaborating with them, with contraband found in his cell.
This is not the first time a U.S. prison has faced the threat of drones. Earlier this month, a drone dropped a package of illegal drugs into the prison yard of the Mansfield Correctional Institution in Ohio.
In the U.K. earlier this year, police spotted someone attempting to use a drone to send drugs, screwdrivers, a knife and a mobile phone to inmates at Bedford Prison in the South Midlands.
