Drone experts hired to fly drugs into prisons

GMP IN CRACKDOWN ON ORGANISED CRIME IN JAILS

- JOHN SCHEERHOUT

GANGS are recruiting expert drone pilots to help smuggle huge quantities of drugs into prisons across Greater Manchester where cocaine and spice can trade for five times the normal market value and generate huge profits for criminals, a senior police officer has revealed.

Drones carrying payloads weighing as much as seven kilos are transporting drugs, mobile phones, tobacco and even items which aren't prohibited inside prisons, such as condiments and sauces, into jails, Supt Andy Buckthorpe told the Manchester Evening News as GMP launched a new operation to tackle crime gangs operating behind bars.

Police also revealed children as young as 14 are being exploited to smuggle contraband into jails.

Traffic cops armed with ANPR cameras, police sniffer dogs and even a police drone were used as part of an operation yesterday outside four Greater Manchester prisons: Strangeways in Manchester city centre, HMP Forest Bank in Salford, HMP Buckley Hall in Rochdale and HMP Hindley in Wigan.

GMP arrested a number of suspects in the latest phase of its operation to tackle crime behind bars which has been running for the last six months but its existence was only confirmed during the huge day of action outside the prisons this week.