2023-10-09 03:15:13
A buzzing sound, almost imperceptible. A fleeting shadow that crosses the night. The operation requires the greatest discretion and follows a well-established scenario. The drone stealthily flies over the prison walls before beginning a controlled descent until reaching its destination. The inmate only has to reach out to retrieve the cargo carried by the device. Mission accomplished. The machine, already heading back towards its pilot, disappears into the darkness, ready for its next performance. At the end of September, a drone delivery network was dismantled in Loire-Atlantique. Four people, including three brothers, were arrested. They are accused of having delivered numerous mobile phones and more than 1.5 kg of drugs to four penitentiary establishments in the West.
If the entry is impressive, the method is no exception. In recent months, drone deliveries have taken place in the prisons of Gradignan (Gironde), Nîmes, Beauvais, Strasbourg, Roanne (Loire), Ploemeur (Morbihan)… But also in Perpignan or Lyon. The objects delivered are diverse: phones, SIM cards, cocaine, bladed weapons but above all cannabis resin. Hence the nickname given by the supervisors to this new practice: « Uber shit »a nickname also used for home drug deliveries in general.
The phenomenon is global. Among the 187 French penitentiary establishments, few have not been the target of illicit drone deliveries to inmates. According to figures communicated by the prison administration, 600 overflights or attempted overflights have been spotted since the start of the year, compared to barely 28 in 2022. But on certain sites, prison officers say that overflights are now daily. “It’s a scourge, a catastrophe. We intercept barely 10% of deliveries by drone. The chances of intercepting them are almost zero”laments Ronan Roudaut, head of UFAP-UNSA Justice at Bordeaux-Gradignan prison.
With a simple wave of the hand
“The threat linked to drones, mainly nocturnal, is fleeting and very diversified. It affects all establishments, but in particular remand centers, because people linked to various types of trafficking are imprisoned there and they are sometimes located near areas of delinquency., notes Laurent Ridel, director of the prison administration. As for the goods transported, usually little more than 500 grams per flight, “It mainly concerns telephones and their accessories and narcotics such as cannabis, medicines”, added M. Ridel.
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