Two held in US over plot to fly drugs, porn into prison on drone

WASHINGTON: Two men are in custody in the US state of Maryland on suspicion of trying to smuggle drugs and pornography into a prison with a drone, corrections officials said Monday.

Synthetic marijuana and bootleg pornographic DVDs were among the items that the duo intended to fly into the state prison in Cumberland.

"You couldn´t make this stuff up," Maryland´s Secretary of Public Safety Stephen Moyer was quoted as telling local reporters.

The Maryland Department of Public Safety said in a statement that the two suspects were arrested on a road that runs by the Western Correctional Institution.

In their vehicle, officers found a quadracopter and its remote control flying console, as well as a handgun, the statement alleged.

Both men were being held in Cumberland -- one on $250,000 bail and the other without bail -- on suspicion of plotting to use a drone to airlift contraband into a correctional facility.

An inmate suspected of participating in the foiled effort is also facing charges after a search of his prison cell turned up contraband, the statement said.

It was thought to be the first time in Maryland that smugglers have been caught using a drone to overfly a prison wall.

Earlier this month, a bid to airlift tobacco, marijuana and heroin into an Ohio prison using a drone triggered a melee among some 75 inmates.

In July 2014, another drone bearing marijuana, tobacco and cell phones crashed outside a wire fence that surrounds a maximum security facility in South Carolina.