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Drug smuggling drone gang found guilty of prison plot

The men delivered packages on fishing lines attached to drones, which were hooked into cells at prisons across the Black Country and beyond.

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Drones were used to smuggle drugs into prisons

A gang of Black Country men have been found guilty of conspiring to smuggle drugs and mobile phones into prisons.

Lee Anslow, Paul Ferguson and Stefan Rattray used drones to supply inmates with cocaine, cannabis, psychoactive substances such as Mamba and Spice, mobile phones and sim cards, Birmingham Crown Court heard.

The jury took just over 24 hours to come back with a unanimous verdict yesterday on all three counts.

Judge Simon Drew QC said he would sentence them in ‘weeks or months’ along with the other defendant in the case.

The gang were active and organised across the UK, including at Featherstone and Oakwood prisons, near Wolverhampton, and also at Winson Green in Birmingham.

Packages were delivered on fishing lines attached to the drones, which were hooked into cells using poles, and their contents then distributed.

Inmates paid premium prices, with drugs costing up to 10 times their street value on the outside.

The court heard that one of the main conspirators was Anslow, a prisoner coordinating the deliveries, as well as Brandon Smith, on the outside, who acted as a pilot.

Smith has since pleaded guilty.

Rattray, 28, of Attingham Drive, Dudley, and serving prisoners Anslow, 31, and Ferguson, 27, had denied the three charges against them; to convey and supply drugs, psychoactive substances and mobile phones and sim cards into prisons.

But a jury of 10 men and women found them guilty.

Shane Hadlington, 29, of Clay Lane, Oldbury; Smith, 24, of Kingsbury Road, Tipton, and Stella Deakin, 41, of Boundary Hill, Dudley, have already pleaded guilty to the same charges.

Rattray, Anslow and Ferguson were taken straight into custody following the verdict, and will not be sentenced for another several weeks.

This will be at the same time as the other defendants.