DRONE WAR 

Inside Irish prisons’ battle of the skies to stop criminals using drones for smuggling drugs

• 14:53, 21 Sep 2022
• Updated: 14:53, 21 Sep 2022

A NEW battle of the skies is being fought to stop jailed criminals using drones to smuggle phones and drugs into Irish jails.

The Irish Prison authorities had their highest known seizure of contraband ever last year thanks to new anti-drone technology installed in six prison sites.

They won’t say publicly which prisons have them for security reasons but it is believed four of the biggest jails Mountjoy, Wheatfield, the Midlands and Portlaoise have all had massive tech upgrades.

It is understood prison officers can track the drones trying to fly in with illicit goods especially at night and take them down.

Last year alone, prison staff seized 1369 phones, 1,518 drugs and 292 weapons which was way up on previous years.

The Irish Prison Service stated: “The roll out of the new Anti-Drone Technology was rolled out to six prisons in total in 2021.

“The Irish Prison Service saw significant seizures of contraband across the estate in 2021 with the number of seizures of illegal drugs and mobile phones being double the rate from 2016.

“This continues to be a priority. The reduced movements into prisons due to reduced commitals and visitors to prisons also saw a return to more traditional contraband smuggling methods such as thrown over walls and as a result higher levels of detection was recorded.

“Following a number of significant drug seizures in 2020 and 2021 the IPS and the Gardai have strengthened their cooperation to tackle the organised trafficking of contraband into Irish prisons and a number of actions have been agreed including enhanced intelligence sharing arrangements.”

A prison source added: “For a number of years there inmates were getting drugs and weapons by drone bag drops.

“But thankfully we have put a stop to all that now.

“We have the technology to take the drones down and are winning the war.”

The Irish Prison Service annual report published a few weeks ago also revealed that every jail in the country has had a security review to stop contraband getting in.

There are currently 356 prisoners seving life for homocide, 12 per cent of the prison population, 449 for sex offenses and 461 for issuing death threats and attempted murder.

Some 29 offenders were serving sentences of less than three months representing 1per cent of sentenced prisoners. 353 inmates were serving sentences of less than 12 months.